


Year Three

by MagicalStarling



Series: The Next Marauders [3]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Eventual Relationships, Eventual Smut, F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-14
Updated: 2017-02-11
Packaged: 2018-09-17 09:02:49
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 17
Words: 31,940
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9314687
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MagicalStarling/pseuds/MagicalStarling





	1. Chapter 1

Chapter One

Harry was sitting in the Potter Manor library with his friends. They were searching through books from Salazar Slytherin’s private library that Harry had opened with parseltongue. 

They had only left Hogwarts a few days earlier and they had decided to continue their research into the three strange objects they had found right away. They knew the diary, locket, and diadem had some connection to Voldemort, but they hadn’t been able to figure out how.

The group had been researching for several hours already with no luck and they were beginning to lose energy. 

Jormy was curled up on top of one of the bookshelves, sunning himself. He had increased his size so that he just fit onto the shelf and had his wings spread out to maximize the amount of sun exposure.

On the same bookshelf, Luna had cleared off an entire shelf and was now laying out across it, reading a book. 

The others lounged around on various pieces of furniture as they lazily scanned through book after book. Even Hermione had stopped reading every page and was just skimming through them.

Rolf had given up any pretense of reading and was going through Harry’s collection of muggle CDs he had bought the summer before. 

Suddenly Draco slammed his book closed, “This is getting us nowhere! I no longer know what I’m supposed to be looking for!”

“We just have to keep looking,” said Hermione, who believed books never failed to provide answers, “something is bound to sound similar. Maybe we need to look in the Malfoy library.” 

Draco sighed, “I can call Dobby, but I don’t know what to tell him, ‘bring every book on dark magic?’ That’s like the entire library.”

Ever since Dobby had tried to prevent Harry from getting to Hogwarts and sent a bludger after him, Dobby had been trying to make up to Harry by aiding them in their research by bringing them books on dark magic.

“Well, we have to try,” said Hermione. 

Draco called for Dobby and a few seconds later the house elf appeared with a little pop. Luna waved to the elf from where she lay. She couldn’t talk because she had begun going through the process of becoming an animagus and had a mandrake leaf in her mouth. Ginny also had a mandrake leaf in her mouth. 

“What can Dobby do?” said the house elf in his squeaky voice. 

“Dobby!” cried Hermione, sitting up, “What happened to your hands?”

Harry leaned forward and saw that Dobby’s hands were wrapped in bandages. Draco frowned and moved closer to examine the elf’s hands.

“Dobby disappointed his master, so Dobby had to iron his hands as punishment.” 

“My father made you do this?!” said Draco. Dobby was Mr. Malfoy’s personal house elf. 

“Dobby, that’s horrible!” said Hermione, joining Draco next to the elf, “You shouldn’t do something like that, even if ordered!”

“Dobby must listen to his master,” said Dobby.

“Not when it means hurting yourself!” she cried. 

Dobby tilted his head as if listening to something far away, “Master is calling for Dobby. Dobby must leave.”

Dobby disappeared with a snap of his fingers.

“How he can do that?!” said Hermione.

“He’s a house elf, Hermione,” said Ron, “They do whatever they’re told. That’s how it works.”

“Well it’s wrong! It’s just an excuse to allow the existence of slavery!” Hermione had been comparing house elves to slaves for a while, “It’s wrong! Such an institute shouldn’t exist!”

“Tell her, Draco,” said Ron, “House elves are happy, it’s what they do.”

But Draco was frowning, “Actually, I think I agree with her. It’s wrong.”

There was silence and everyone stared at Draco in shock.

“I mean,” he said, “it's not as though my family couldn’t afford to pay them or give them a day off every once in awhile. Or at the very least not make them  _ iron their hands _ .”

“You  _ have _ been listening to me!” said Hermione, grinning.

“Hey,” said Rolf, “when I said I agreed with you and you didn’t get this excited.”

There came a knock on the door and Sirius stuck his head in, “Are you guys still working on your assignments? Summer just started! Take a break and go play some Quidditch!”

They did as Sirius suggested and went out to play some Quidditch for the rest of the day on the Quidditch field located on the Potter grounds.

When they got together to continue their research a few days later, Hermione came in with a large box. 

“What’s that?” asked Neville.

“Buttons!” she reached into the box and pulled out a blue button that said ‘S.P.E.W.’

“Spew?” said Draco.

“It stands for Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare,” she told them.

“Never heard of it,” said Ron.

“Of course you haven’t,” said Hermione, “I invented it. I wanted to call it ‘Stop the Outrageous Abuse of Our Fellow Magical Creatures and Campaign for a Change in Their Legal Status,’ but I couldn’t make that fit on a button. I was hoping you guys would be the first members.”  
“I refuse to join until you change the name,” said Draco.

“But...I already made the buttons,” said Hermione. 

In the end Rolf suggested calling the group the Creatures’ Campaign, that way they could expand it to include other creatures besides house elves. Rolf also took several of Hermione’s spew buttons saying that he would put them on his school bag. 

They ended up spending the rest of the day sending out letters to promote the new organization and Harry spoke to his own house elves about getting paid. The house elves seemed very reluctant about the idea, but none of them protested against the young Potter Lord. 

That night Harry was flipping through a book on dark artifacts when Remus came in. 

“What are you reading?” he asked, sitting down next to Harry. Harry showed him the cover, “That’s an interesting choice for summer reading.” 

Harry opened his mouth, but hesitated, so far he hadn’t told Remus or Sirius about the three objects.

“Have you heard of something that is able to control someone?”

Remus frowned in thought, “You mean like a cursed object?”

“Sort of?” said Harry, “But this object, it has an impression of its past owner, and it communicates with whoever has it, and slowly begins gaining control over them.”

Remus’ frown deepened, “Do you have this object?” Harry debated with himself for a moment before going and getting all three of the objects and showing them to Remus.

“The locket belonged to Salazar Slytherin, the diadem was Rowena Ravenclaw’s, and the diary belonged to a Tom Riddle.”

“Tom Riddle, are you sure?” said Remus, Harry nodded,

“Voldemort,” said Sirius, Harry hadn’t noticed him enter the room, “Dumbledore told us that Voldemort used to be Tom Riddle, a student of his. He told the members of the Order of the Phoenix, the group he lead against Voldemort.” 

Harry nodded, “We figured out that Tom Riddle was Voldemort. The diary writes back to you, it’s like it's holding a version of Riddle from his time at Hogwarts. The diary was trying to get someone to open the Chamber of Secrets, to continue his work.” 

“What about the locket and diadem?” asked Remus, “How are they connected?”

“That’s the locket from Regulus’ room,” said Sirius. 

Harry nodded, “I took the locket because I could feel the magic coming from it. The diary and the diadem have the same kind of magic,” Remus frowned and opened his mouth.

“I know,” said Harry before Remus had a chance to speak, “you can’t feel it. None of the others could feel anything from it either. Just me. I think they are somehow connected to each other and to Voldemort. And I don’t think Voldemort is dead. He was using Quirrell's body my first year because he had none of his own. I think his body was destroyed, but he’s somehow still out there, just without a body.”

“Remus knows how,” said Sirius, Harry looked at Remus, who was staring into the distance, frowning, “he’s make that face when he’s figured something out, but he doesn’t like the answer.” 

“Remus?” asked Harry.

“I think, what you’re describing sounds a lot like a horcrux, but I’ve never heard of someone having more than one.”

Harry frowned in confusion, “What’s a horcrux?”

“A horcrux is like a container for a piece of someone’s soul. If someone creates a horcrux and then dies, they live on because of the horcrux. It’s supposed to be a way to become immortal, but in order to create a horcrux the person must first deliberately murder someone. Murdering someone causes a sort of tear in one’s soul. The person then performs a ritual which tears a portion of the soul away from their body and into the object of their choice.”

“I’ve never heard of a horcrux,” said Harry.

“I’m not surprised,” said Remus, “it’s very dark magic. I only read about it in one book, a copy of  _ Secrets of the Darkest Arts _ . I came across it when I was searching for a solution, for my, condition.”  

“How do you destroy a horcrux?” asked Harry.

“I’m not sure,” said Remus, “that may be a question for Albus Dumbledore. I know that he has books in his office that were considered too dark for the school library, perhaps he has a copy of the book. I can send him a letter and ask.”

Suddenly Harry felt a tingle go through his spine, someone had just entered through the wards. As the lord of the manor, Harry was connected to the houses’ wards and was aware when people crossed them.

“I don’t think that will be necessary, Dumbledore just entered the grounds.” 


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

Harry, Remus, and Sirius went to greet Dumbledore. Harry opened the frontdoor just as Dumbledore was about to knock.

“Hello, Professor,” said Harry, “Come in.”

Dumbledore gave Harry one of his grandfatherly smiles as he entered the manor, “Hello, Mister Potter. I apologize for interrupting your evening.”

He looked past Harry to Sirius and Remus, “but I’m afraid that something has come up.”

“We can talk in the parlour,” said Remus, “I’ll get tea, come on Harry.”

Sirius led Dumbledore to the parlor while Harry followed Remus to the kitchen. Remus asked the house elves to make tea and they hurried to do so.

“Why did we come to the kitchen if you were just going to ask the house elves to make the tea?” asked Harry.

“Because Harry, Dumbledore wished to speak to me and Sirius. And only me and Sirius.”

“I know,” said Harry.

“I just wanted to make sure that you were aware of how heightened my senses are,” he replied, “and that I’ll be able to tell if you decide to sneak in to listen under a certain cloak, or decide to listen in while in a different form.”

Harry pouted at Remus, “Sirius would be encouraging me to listen in.”

“That’s why Sirius isn’t here,” he replied. Remus took the tray of tea from the house elves and left the kitchen. 

Harry stayed in the kitchen and sipped his own cup of tea. A second later Jormy flew into the kitchen. Harry knew that Jormy had been hanging out in the parlor in front of the fireplace.

“He doesn’t trust you either, huh?” Harry asked the little occamy as he curled around Harry’s shoulders. 

One of the house elves gave Harry a plate of cookies and he sat eating them until he felt the wards indicate that Dumbledore had left the property. 

He got up, giving Jormy the rest of the cookie he had been eating, before heading towards the parlor to find Remus and Sirius. 

Both men sat together on the couch, looking concerned.

“We have to tell him-” said Sirius.

“Tell him what?” asked Harry, entering the room and sitting in one of the armchairs.

“Bellatrix Lestrange,” said Sirius, “do you know who she is?” 

“Yeah, I’ve read about her,” said Harry, “she was a big supporter of Voldemort, was sent to Azkaban after being caught using the cruciatus curse on the Longbottoms. Neville’s parents.” 

“Yes,” said Sirius, “she’s also unfortunately my cousin, but that’s beside the point. This morning Bellatrix escaped from Azkaban. Dumbledore didn’t want you to know because he was afraid of worrying you.”

“And should I be worried?”

“Of course not,” said Remus at the same time as Sirius said, “Yes.”

The men exchanged looks with each other.

“Harry,” started Remus, “You don’t have to worry, but you should be cautious. As you know Bellatrix was a large supporter of You-Know-Who, and as you're aware, the Wizarding World considers you to be the defeater of You-Know-Who.”

“So, you think she might come after me to avenge him,” said Harry.

Both men nodded.

“But you’ll be safe,” said Sirius, “the wards on the manor will protect you here and tomorrow me and Remus will go out and check on them. And once you’re at Hogwarts you’ll be safe.”

“Which brings us to one other thing,” said Remus, “I’m going to Hogwarts with you. I’m going to be the new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor. Dumbledore just offered me the job.”

“That’s great!” said Harry, “Congrats!” 

Harry took Jormy and went to his room. He knew that Sirius and Remus were more concerned than they let on, but Harry would be prepared. He sent letters to his friends telling them about Bellatrix’s escape before heading to bed. 

The rest of the summer Harry pretty much was on lockdown in the Potter Manor, but luckily Sirius and Remus allowed his friends to visit. 

When Harry got his school list, Sirius and Remus went and picked up his supplies for him. 

On September first Remus, Sirius, and Harry apparated to the train station. Harry and Remus said their goodbyes to Sirius before boarding the train. 

Remus went to talk to the prefects while Harry joined his friends. They chatted as the train left the station and began heading towards Hogwarts.

Luna pulled out a pair of tarot cards Draco had given her for Christmas and began giving them card readings. 

Remus joined them in their compartment and Hermione began questioning him on the year’s curriculum, which Harry and his friends had already worked on over the summer. 

They had been traveling for several hours when the train came to a stop and the lights flickered out.


	3. Chapter Three

Chapter Three

As the train fell into darkness the temperature dropped, frost began covering the windows. 

Luna got up from where she had been sitting cross legged on the floor and sat on the bench.

Remus was on his feet and had the compartment door open, wand out. The others quickly pulled out their wands as well and soon the compartment was filled with the light from their wands.

Draco peered out the window, “I think something is moving out there!”

Rolf, who was next to the window, peered outside, “Those are dementors!”

“Dementors!?” said Ron, “They’re supposed to be guarding Azkaban, what are they doing here?”

“Bellatrix Lestrange,” said Harry, “they must be looking for her.”

“On a train full of children?” said Draco, “Who’s brilliant idea was that! Wait until my father hears about this. On second thought, I’m still mad at my father. I’ll tell my mother instead.” 

The air grew even colder in the compartment and Harry started feeling weak. He slumped down in the seat, he could hear screaming. 

“Harry!” cried Neville.

From the doorway Remus cried, “No one on this train is hiding Bellatrix Lestrange,” he then used a spell that sent a white light flying down the train corridor and Harry thought he saw a glimpse of a hooded figure fleeing from it.

He must have blacked out for a moment because when he opened his eyes again his head was in Draco’s lab and everyone was looking at him in concern. Harry saw that the lights were back on and the train was moving again. 

“What happened?” asked Harry.

“The dementor,” said Remus, “it must have affected you more than the others.”

“Yeah,” said Draco, “You fainted like a true hero. Some chosen one you are.” 

Remus passed out large bars of chocolate before going to check on the rest of the students. 

“Are you alright Harry?” asked Hermione.

“Yeah, I think so. Did one of you scream?” he asked the three girls, who each said no.

“No one screamed,” said Ron.

“But I heard someone screaming,” said Harry, “It was a woman, she sounded terrified.” 

“Sometimes memories stay with us that we don’t realize that we have,” said Luna.

Harry frowned, “You think it's a memory? When would I have heard a woman screaming like that? Unless...my mum. The night she died.”

They sat in silence.

“That got depressing fast,” commented Rolf, “Harry eat your chocolate, it’s the best thing for a dementor attack. And we need to think happy thoughts.”

Luna nodded eagerly and began telling them about moon frogs, which according to her populated the moon. She claimed that a wizard once flew to the moon on a Cleansweep Six and brought back a bagful of the frogs. 

Remus rejoined their compartment and handed out more chocolate. 

By the time they arrived at Hogwarts Harry felt that he had filled up on chocolate and wouldn’t be able to eat anything at the feast.

Upon entering the Great Hall the group was happy to see that their table hadn’t been moved and had in fact been set with the same gold dining plates as the rest of the tables. Although Rolf immediately replaced his gold plate for his plastic dragon one.

They watched the sorting and they could see a lot of first years eyeing their table, probably thinking that they were forced to sit at their own table because the hat hadn’t been able to sort them into one of the houses.

After the sorting Dumbledore stood to give his welcoming speech to start off the new school year.

“Welcome to another year at Hogwarts! Before we begin eating I have a few things I must tell you, the first one being a very important and serious matter. As you are well aware after their search of the Hogwarts Express, the dementors of Azkaban will be nearby Hogwarts as they conduct Ministry of Magic business. They will be stationed at every entrance to the school grounds. While they are here, no one will be able to leave school grounds without permission. Dementors cannot be tricked by disguises or invisibility cloaks. Dementors do not understand pleading or excuses, so I ask each of you to not give them reason to harm you.

“I look to our prefects and our new Head Boy and Girl to look out for all students and make sure none of them have any run ins with a dementor.”

At the Gryffindor table Harry could see Ron’s brother Percy puffing his chest out with pride, his Head Boy badge gleaming on his chest.

“I would also like to welcome our new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Lupin,” continues Dumbledore.

Harry and his friends cheered loudly from their table. 

“I would also like to announce,” said Dumbledore, “that the Care of Magical Creatures teacher, Professor Kettleburn, has retired, and the role will be filled by none other than Rubeus Hagrid.” 

The group once again applauded loudly. Of course, only Hagrid would assign them a book that bites people. When Remus and Sirius had arrived home with Harry’s school supplies, Sirius might have ‘accidently’ unleashed the book on Harry and allowed it to chase him around the manor before Remus took pity and showed him how to stroke the book’s spine. 

The feast began and Harry, who had regained his appetite, filled his plate with all his favourites. 

After the feast was finished Rolf said he wanted to see Norbert. So the group snuck out of the castle in their animagus forms to head down to the forest. Luna and Ginny had managed to achieve their animagus forms just a few days earlier. Luna was a hare and Ginny was a horse.

They quickly made it to where Norbert was staying in the forest. The dragon was enormous, bigger than some houses with gleaming black scales and bronze horns on his head.

Norbert had been getting the hang of flying when they left school the year before and Rolf was determined that he would ride Norbert this year.

After checking that the dragon was alright they began heading back. 

But as they walked they noticed some changes in the forest, mainly giant cobwebs. They changed back into their human forms to examine them.

“Oh, god,” said Ron, “not spiders, why spiders?”

“I can’t remember seeing webs like this before,” said Neville.

“They were probably made by acromantula,” said Rolf, “Hagrid mentioned to me he used to have one.”

“Of course he did,” said Ron.

“Thy probably expanded their territory since last year,” said Rolf.

Suddenly they heard a strange noise that sounded like a strange roaring noise and they realized that something was coming at them, fast. They were blinded by light and Harry squinted trying to see though it.

“Bloody hell!” yelled Ron, “it’s the car!”

Harry realized that Ron was right, the blue Ford Anglia was hurtling towards them.

“It’s come back to get revenge on us for smashing into a tree!” yelled Draco.

The car came to a sudden stop, just a few feet in front of them and sat there idling.

“That was unexpected,” said Rolf, “Want to see if we can drive it?”

They all piled into the car, which Mr. Weasley had thankfully enchanted to make it larger on the inside.

Hermione got in the driver seat and began driving them through the trees back to the school.   


	4. Chapter Four

Chapter Four

The next day at breakfast everyone in the Great Hall seemed to be reading the  _ Daily Prophet  _ which was plastered with a picture of Bellatrix Lestrange on the front cover. In the photo she looked manic, with wild eyes and messy hair. She appeared to be doing some strange combination between laughing and baring her teeth in a growl.

Neville was pale and was staring down at his plate as he ate, refusing to look up at the multitude of Bellatrix photos.

Draco also looked uncomfortable; Bellatrix was afterall his aunt on his mother’s side. 

Hermione had removed the front cover of her paper as she read the article, “It says that the aurors have finished examining the cell she was in. They think for the past decade she was slowly pouring power wandlessly into the wall of her cell and she just weakened it enough to get out this summer.” 

“I should work on wandless magic,” said Rolf, “that way I can blast down a wall without it taking years.”

“Yeah,” said Ron, “out of all of us, you’re most likely to end up in Azkaban.”

“Me!” said Rolf, “Why, me?”

“Your hobby is illegal magical creatures,” pointed out Hermione, “but on other news, I think the map is ready, I found a ritual that should connect it to the school wards, then we should know where everyone in the school is.”

And if Bellatrix Lestrange stepped foot on school grounds went unspoken.

“Also,” continued Hermione, “I was thinking we could try to enchant watches to work like the Weasley’s clock.” 

The Weasley’s had a clock that monitored the family’s whereabouts. Instead of normal clock hands, it had nine clock hands, one for each member of the family. And in place of hours on the clock face it had possible locations, such as home, school, travel, lost, prison, hospital, and mortal peril.

“I bought us each wrist watches and thought we could give it a try,” she finished.

They agreed to work on it later that night after connecting the map to the wards.

They then left for their first class. Hermione had so many classes Harry wasn’t sure how she would manage it. When Ron caught sight of her schedule he snatched it from her, and let out a “Bloody hell Hermione! How are you supposed to go to all those classes!”

Draco leaned over to look, “You have classes at the same, you can’t be at both classes at once.”

Hermione grabbed the schedule back, muttering something about working it out with Professor McGonagall before saying that they better head to class.

Harry’s first class was divination. Third years were able to pick certain classes to take alongside their core classes and they had all decided to take divination. 

The divination classroom was located in the North Tower. They had discovered a shortcut to the tower behind a painting, but it was still a long walk so they headed out saying goodbye to Luna and Ginny.

When they got to the landing they were some of the only people there. There was no stairs up to the classroom, instead there was a trapdoor with a brass plaque that said ‘Sibyll Trelawney, Divination teacher.’

After waiting a few moments as the other students appeared, the trapdoor finally opened and a silvery ladder descended. 

It was the strangest-looking classroom they had ever seen. They had already been in the room before when they were exploring the school to make the map. They had had a moment of fright in the room when Neville accidently knocked a self of teacups down, shattering them all, but luckily Hermione had been able to repair them.  

The room was crammed with round tables surrounded by chintz armchairs and fat little poufs. The room was dark, with the curtains closed. Everything was lit with a dim, crimson light. The fire was lit in the mantle and was giving off a heady aroma of herbs and some sort of sickly sweet smell. The shelves around the room were crowded with lots of teacups, crystal balls, playing cards, and other random nicknacks. 

Neville began coughing as soon as they entered the room, so they quickly grabbed a table by the windows and cracked one open.

Jormy slithered out from Harry’s sleeve and made himself at home in a pink teapot. 

“Where is she?” whispered Ron as they looked around the room for Professor Trelawney.

“Welcome,” came a voice from the shadows, “How nice to see you in the physical world at last.”

The voice was soft and it sounded as though Trelawney was attempting to sound mysterious.

As Professor Trelawney moved into the firelight, Harry’s first thought was that she looked like an insect. She was extremely thin with huge eyes magnified by her thick glasses. She wore a gauzy spangled shawl, numerous chains and beads around her long neck, and her arms and fingers were covered in rings and bracelets. 

“Sit, my children,” she said to those who were still standing, “Welcome to divination.”

Trelawny swept over to the fireplace and sat down in a large winged armchair, “My name is Professor Trelawney. You may not have seen me before. I find that descending too often into the hustle and bustle of the main school clouds my Inner Eye.” 

Thinking back Harry couldn’t remember ever seeing Trelawny at any of the meals besides the feasts. 

Rearranging her shawl, Professor Trelawney continued, “So you have all chosen to study the art of divination, the most difficult of the magical arts. I must warn you now that if you do not have the Sight, there is very little I can do to teach you. Books can only take you so far in this field…”

Hermione frowned at this, looking down at her divination book.

“While many wizards are talented at creating loud bangs and colorful lights, or can make objects disappear, they are unable to pierce the veil and unravel the mysteries of the future. It is a rare gift, granted to few. You boy,” she said suddenly to Neville, who almost fell off his pouf. “Is your grandmother well?” 

“I-I think so,” said Neville tremulously. 

“I wouldn’t be so sure, dear,” said Professor Trelawney, and Neville gulped, “We will begin with reading tea leaves, then move on to palmistry next term. By the way, my dear,” she suddenly said to Parvati Patil, “beware a red-haired man.”  

Parvati looked startled and stared at Ron, then slowly began edging her seat away.

“Then we shall progress to crystal balls,” continued Trelawney, “once we finish fire omens that is. Classes shall be disrupted in February due to a nasty bout of flu that will cause me to lose my voice. And around Easter, one of you shall leave us forever.”

A tense silence followed this announcement, but Trelawney was either unaware of it or just ignored it. 

“I wonder dear,” she said to Lavender Brown, who shrunk down in her seat, “Could you pass me that silver teapot?”

Lavender looked relieved as she handed Trelawney the large teapot.

“Thank you, my dear. Also, that thing you’ve been dreading-it will happen on Friday the sixteenth of October.”

Lavender was trembling when she returned to her seat.

Trelawney then had them get into pairs and she filled a teacup for each of them with tea. They were told to drink the tea until only the dregs remained. They would then give the cup to their partner to read using  _ Unfogging the Future _ .

As Neville walked to get a teacup, Trelawney grabbed his arm, “Oh, and dear, after you’ve broken your first cup, would you be so kind as to select one of the blue patterned ones? I’m quite fond of the pink ones.”

“I’ll just grab you a cup Neville,” said Rolf, grabbing two cups and sitting next to Neville. Ron and Hermione partnered up and Harry partnered with Draco. 

They all got their tea and sipped the scalding hot beverage as fast as they could. Then after swilling the dregs around and draining any remaining tea as instructed, they swapped cups. 

“This just looks like soggy brown stuff,” said Harry squinting at Draco’s cup.

“Same here,” said Draco, “looks like we both have exciting lives ahead of us.”

Harry chuckled. The room’s fumes were making him feel sleepy and stupid.

“Broaden your mind!” Trelawny called out to the class.

Harry shifted in his seat and pulled his book closer, trying to focus.

“Right, so this sort looks like an alligator…” he consulted the book, “That’s a bad sign, it means personal danger or distress, often caused by those nearest to you. But this kinda looks like a hand? Which means loyalty and affection.” 

Draco frowned, “Those don’t seem to really go together, do they? Anyway, I think this is a club. That means an attack,” he turned the cup, “This looks like some kind of animal…”

Trelawny walked over and snatched the cup from Draco’s hands, who made an undignified noise. 

“The falcon...my dear, you have a deadly enemy.”

“Everyone knows that,” said Hermione. Professor Trelawney stared at her.

“Well, they do,” said Hermione, “Everyone knows about Harry and You-Know-Who.”

This was the first time Harry had ever heard Hermione speak to a teacher like that. He was impressed, and he saw that the others also looked impressed. Trelawney did not reply, instead looking back at Harry’s cup.

“The skull...danger in your path…”

The entire class was now watching her as she turned the cup in her hands. She gave a gasp, then screamed. 

There was a tinkle of breaking glass as Neville dropped his cup. 

“My poor, dear boy...no...I shouldn’t say, it’s kinder not to...no...don’t even ask me…”

“What is it, Professor?” asked Dean Thomas. Everyone in the class was getting to their feet and moving to get a look at Harry’s cup. 

“My dear,” said Trelawny, her eyes so wide they looked like they may pop out of her head, “you have the Grim.” 

“I have what?” Harry could see that he wasn’t the only one who didn’t understand. Lavender Brown and Dean Thomas both looked confused, but most of the class looked horrified. 

“The Grim!” exclaimed Trelawny, “The giant, spectral dog that haunts churchyards! My dear boy, it is an omen of death!” 

Next to him, Draco snorted, “It’s not a Grim! It’s a fox, meaning trickery and theft. I saw it.”

“My boy,” said Trelawny, “you are mistaken. It is the grim!”

Hermione had gotten up and moved to stand behind Professor Trelawny, looking over her shoulder into the cup.

“I agree with Draco.  _ I  _ don’t think it looks like the grim,” she said flatly. 

Trelawney surveyed Hermione with obvious dislike, “You’ll forgive me for saying so, but I perceive very little aura around you. You are not receptive to the resonances of the future.”

“From here it looks like a donkey,” said Rolf.

“I think a fox seems pretty likely,” commented Harry, thinking of his animagus form. 

Professor Trelawney ended the lesson there and they packed up their stuff. Harry had to coax Jormy out of the teapot. 

The left the North Tower and Harry, Neville, Ron, and Hermione headed to transfiguration with Professor McGonagall. Hermione ranted on about how Trelawny was a fraud and that Luna could predict the future better than her. Harry found her ranting rather amusing.

In transfiguration Harry found himself tuning out as McGonagall told them about animagi. He was after all, well aware of what an animagi was. But the rest of the class was also distracted, most still thinking about the Divination class.

After turning into a tabby cat with spectacle markings around her eyes and getting little reaction McGonagall asked the class what was going on.

“We just had our first Divination class,” said Hermione.

“Ah, I see,” said Professor McGonagall, “Who will be dying this year?”

Everyone turned and looked at Harry.

“That would be me, Professor,” said Harry.

“Well, Mr. Potter, you look to be in fine health to me. And I’ll have you know that Trelawney has predicted the death of a student each year, and it has yet to come true. So excuse me if I don’t let you off homework today. I assure you, if you were to die, you need not hand it in.”

Harry and Hermione both laughed at this. 

After Transfiguration they went to the Great Hall for lunch. The others told Luna and Ginny about Harry’s impending doom.

“What do you think, Luna?” asked Harry, “Am I going to die?”

“Of course silly,” she said, “Everyone will. Worrying about it just makes it come sooner.”     

Harry’s next class was Care of Magical Creatures with Hagrid and he was looking forward to it. He hoped it went well for Hagrid and that he didn’t plan on showing them a creature that may potentially eat the class.

Harry had decided not to take Jormy to class with him since he didn’t know how whatever creatures Hagrid planned on showing them would react to his presence. So Harry had told Jormy to go check on Basil. 

They all made their way down to Hagrid’s hut where the class was meeting. Hagrid stood waiting for them, looking eager to start.

“C’mon,” he called when he caught sight of the class, “get a move on! Is everyone here? Right, follow me!”

Hagrid began leading them in the direction of the forest and Harry’s heart dropped. Hagrid wasn’t going to try and show the class Norbert, right? Or his spiders? 

Harry was relieved when they stopped at the edge of the trees and instead went to a paddock. It appeared to be empty. 

“Everyone come right up to the fence!” called Hagrid, waving the class forward, “Firs’ thing you’ll want to do is open yer books.”

Harry pulled out his book and stroked the spine to open it, his friends did the same, but Harry saw that everyone around them had bound the book closed or crammed them into tight bags to prevent the books from attacking them. Harry was glad that Remus had known what to do with the book. 

Hagrid seemed disappointed that the majority of the class hadn’t figured out how to open his book.

“So-er-you got the books, now you just need the magical creatures, I’ll go get them,” Hagrid walked into the paddock and disappeared into the trees. 

“Oooooh!” squealed Lavender Brown as Hagrid walked back leading a group of animals behind him. There were about a dozen creatures behind Hagrid. They had the bodies, hind legs and tails of horses, but the front legs, wings, and heads of eagles, with sharp steel-colored beaks and large orange eyes. They had large deadly looking talons. They each wore a thick collar which was attached to a long chain that was held by Hagrid.

Hagrid dragged the creatures towards the fence and most of the class stepped back in alarm. Expect for Rolf, who moved closer. 

“Hippogriffs!” Hagrid roared, grinning happily, “Beau’iful aren’ they?”

“And dangerous,” muttered Draco, though he looked fascinated by the animals.

“I’ve ridden a hippogriff before,” whispered Rolf, “They’re amazing!”  

Harry could see what Hagrid meant when he called the hippogriffs beautiful. They were each different colors, stormy gray, bronze, pinkish roan, chestnut, and inky black. Each of their coats gleamed and the transition between fur and feathers was smooth.

“You’ll can come closer,” said Hagrid. The class seemed reluctant to get any closer to the hippogriffs, but Harry and his friends moved up to the fence. 

Harry figured that he had already faced dangerous creatures and Hagrid seemed confident that they wouldn’t attack them.

“Firs’ thing you need to know about hippogriffs,” said Hagrid, “they’re very proud creatures. Easily offended, you don’t want to offend a hippogriff. Insultin’ one may be the last thing you do. When approachin’ a hippogriff, yeh always want to wait and let the hippogriff make the firs’ move. It’s just polite, see? You jus’ walk towards them and then yeh bow, an’ yeh wait. If he bows back, yeh’re allowed ter touch him. If he doesn’t bow, then get away right quick, cause those talons will hurt.

“Right then, who wants to go first?”

“For what?” said Neville, sounding nervous. Most of the class was backing up further from the paddock. Rolf continued to stand right next to the paddock. 

“To meet them of course!” said Hagrid, “Who wants ter come up and say ‘ello?” 

“Me!” cried Rolf and he climbed into the paddock. Without needing to be told what to do, Rolf carefully approached one of the hippogriffs, a golden tan one. He stopped a few feet in front of it and gave it a low bow, after looking him over for a minute, the hippogriff gave a bow back. Rolf then approached it and began stroking its feathers.

“Very good!” said Hagrid, beaming, “Who else?”

“I’ll do it,” volunteered Harry, entering the paddock. Hagrid indicated for him to approach a grey hippogriff.

“Let’s see how you do with Buckbeak.” 

Harry followed Rolf’s example and slowly approached Buckbeak.

“Keep eye contact,” said Hagrid quietly, “He won’t trust you if you blink too much…”

Harry felt his eyes immediately begin to water. Buckbeak had turned towards Harry and was watching his approach.

Harry gave the hippogriff a short bow and then looked up. The hippogriff continued to stare at him haughtily and Harry began to get nervous. But then, Buckbeak bent his scaly head in a bow towards him.

“Well done, Harry!” said Hagrid, “Go on and pet him now!”

Harry approached the hippogriff, who was now ignoring him, and began stroking his feathers, amazed by how soft he was. 

“I reckon he might let you ride him Harry!” said Hagrid, ecstatic. 

Hagrid assisted Harry in getting onto Buckbeak and then without warning, Harry was soaring through the air. 

Harry gripped the hippogriff with his legs, not sure where to hold on. He was afraid he would pull out Buckbeak’s feathers if he held onto them too hard. 

Buckbeak flew them around the paddock once before landing. 

The rest of the class eagerly entered the paddock and began cautiously approaching the hippogriffs. After bowing to Buckbeak, Draco also rode him. 

After dinner the group went down to visit Hagrid, but he immediately brought them back to the castle, saying that Harry shouldn’t be wandering around the school grounds with Lestrange on the loose.

They went back to the castle and went to the owlery. Ron sent a letter to his mother asking for information about their clock. 

They then went to the Room of Requirement where Hermione set up the ritual to connect their map to the school’s wards. The ritual used runes and was a variation of the ritual used to set up the wards.

When she was finished they could see where everyone in the school was. Everyone was represented by footprints with the person’s name under them.

They then headed back to their dorms. It was one of the rare nights where Harry actually went to his bed in the Gryffindor Tower.

He lay awake for a couple hours, stroking Jormy who had returned from the chamber after dinner.

Suddenly he sat up, thinking about his ride on Buckbeak. He walked to the common room and opened one of the large windows.

Jormy seemed to realise what he was doing and flew out the window before growing in size. Harry climbed onto the windowsill and Jormy hovered as close as he could next to the window as Harry swung his legs around him. It was awkward, with no place to hold on, but Harry managed to get himself somewhat comfortable sitting behind Jormy’s head.

Then they were off; Jormy flew with him over the forest and then dove towards the lake so close that Harry reached out and touched the water.

Harry wasn’t sure how long they flew together before he tapped Jormy’s head to indicate that he was ready to go back. 

He fell asleep immediately when he got back to the tower.   


	5. Chapter Five

Chapter Five

The next day an owl delivered a letter for Draco, and Neville got his annual package from his grandmother with everything he forgot. 

“Yes!” exclaimed Draco when he opened the letter.

“What is it?” asked Ginny, leaning over his shoulder to see.

“I’ve been bugging my father all summer about letting me use Dobby; he doesn’t know that he’s been helping us. And he agreed to allow me to use Dobby, which means that I’m his new master.”

“So you can free him!” cried Hermione, “This is great! I’ve already knit him a pair of socks you can give him!”

“You knit him socks?” said Ron.

“Yes, I was hoping that we could somehow trick Mr. Malfoy into giving them to Dobby in something, but now we don’t have to do that!” said Hermione.

They left the Great Hall and ran to the Room of Requirement. 

“Dobby!” called Draco and the house elf appeared, giving Draco a bow, “I’m going to set you free.”

The elf’s eyes widened as Draco presented him with a pair of green knit socks, “Master has given Dobby socks, Dobby is free!”

“Congratulations Mr. Dobby,” said Luna.

“Mr? Dobby likes her.” 

“Do you know what you’re going to do now?” asked Rolf.

“Dobby doesn’t know, Dobby wasn’t expecting to be set free.”

“Well, whatever you do,” said Hermione, “If you plan on working, you need to make sure that you are paid.”

“Dobby,” said Harry, “If you’re interested, would you like to work for us? We’ll pay you and give you time off.”

“Dobby would love to work for you!” squeaked the little elf excitedly.

Harry pulled out a few coins from his bag, “Then here’s your first pay. You can get past Hogwarts’ wards with no problems, do you think you could get into the ministry?”

Dobby nodded eagerly, “Dobby can get into the ministry.”

Harry could see the others looking at him in confusion.

“Could you try and get information on the hunt on Bellatrix Lestrange? As well as information on Voldemort’s Death Eaters? But don’t get caught. Your safety is more important.”

Dobby nodded and disappeared with a snap of his fingers. 

They left the Room of Requirement and hurried to their first classes. Harry, Ron, Neville, and Draco went to the dungeons for Potions class with Snape. By the time they got there they were late.

“Sorry,” Draco said to Snape, “it’s my fault we’re late.”

Snape’s eyes narrowed slightly, but he just told them to take their seats.

They were making shrinking potions and Draco helped the others with their potions, just as he had done for the past two years. And like always, Snape ignored their group, though Harry could feel his eyes on him sometimes, glaring at his back. 

Harry knew that Snape hated him. Sirius and Remus had told him about their school years with Snape and how they had bullied him. Harry’s father had been especially cruel to him, because Snape had a crush on Harry’s mother. Harry knew that Sirius had once almost gotten Snape killed when he tricked him into going where Remus was in his werewolf form. Harry’s father had saved him, but that certainly didn’t improve their relationship.  

Harry knew that the only reason Snape didn’t do anything against him or his friends was because of Draco.

Harry watched as Snape yelled at a group of Gryffindors whose potion had turned a bright orange rather than the acid green color it was supposed to be.

When class finished they handed in their potions. Harry told the others to go, that he wanted to talk to Snape. He waited until everyone had left before approaching Snape’s desk. Snape’s eyes narrowed and his mouth tightened.

“What do you want Potter?” his voice was cold.

“I just wanted to tell you that I know you don’t like me, and that the only thing stopping you for treating me the way you want to, is Draco,” said Harry, “I know that you hated my father and that you liked my mother. I’m sorry that I look like my father, but I’m not him. I’m also sorry that I have my mother’s eyes and you have to see her in me everyday. If you want to do something with that rage, aim it at the person who killed her rather than your students. Voldemort will return, and if you’re truly against him, then you can help us stop him for good and get your revenge.”

Snape was staring at Harry, his mouth open.

“I also know that you can be a good teacher. After all you did teach Draco and I know that the instructions you put on the board are better than the ones in the book. So perhaps you could actually try to help the other students. 

“That’s all professor,” finished Harry, “have a good day.”

Harry quickly caught up with the others on their way to Defense. When they entered the classroom Harry was surprised to see that all the desks had been moved to the back of the room.

“You can just put down your bags,” said Remus, “You won’t need your books. Today will be a practical lesson.” 

The class put down their stuff, looking curious and there were excited whispers. They had never had an actual practical Defense lesson, unless you counted Lockhart’s first class when he released pixies on them.

Remus tapped a wardrobe that was in the center of the room. The wardrobe shook, causing people to jump back in alarm.

“Nothing to worry about,” said Remus calmly, giving the class a smile, “It’s just a boggart. Boggarts like dark, enclosed spaces, like wardrobes or spaces under beds. This one was hiding in the teachers’ lounge and the headmaster gave me permission to use it in class.

“So, who knows what a boggart is?”

Harry raised his hand, he remembered Remus telling him about how they would be learning about boggarts.

“A boggart is a shapeshifter,” said Harry, “no one knows what one actually looks like because it takes the shape of the person’s worst fear.” 

“Correct,” said Remus, “I couldn’t have said it better myself.”

Harry smiled to himself knowing that those were the exact words Remus had used to describe a boggart to him. 

“So the boggart in this wardrobe has not assumed a form yet because he does not yet know what the person on the other side of the door is afraid of,” said Remus, “When I open the door it will assume the form of whatever each of us most fears.

“But we have an advantage, do you know what advantage we have, Neville?”

“Er-it won’t know what form to take because there are so many of us.”

“Precisely,” said Remus, “It’s good to have company when dealing with a boggart. Now you will each face the boggart. The charm that repels a boggart is very simple, but requires you to use your mind. You see, laughter is what finishes off a boggart. What you need to do is make the boggart assume the form of something you find amusing.

“The charm you will be using is  _ riddikulus _ .”

Remus had them practice the charm a few times before having them line up. He threw open the door to the wardrobe and Harry watched as his classmates tackled the boggart.

When it was Ron’s turn the boggart transformed into a giant, hairy spider. Ron hesitated a moment, but he yelled  _ Riddikulus!  _ And the spider’s legs vanished. 

Neville went next and the boggart changed into Bellatrix Lestrange, causing a few screams of fear. Remus stepped forwards, but Neville had already raised his wand and Bellatrix was suddenly wearing a long, lace-trimmed dress and a towering hat with a vulture and she was a holding a huge crimson bag. Harry recognized the outfit as something Neville’s grandmother would wear. 

When Draco stepped up to face the boggart it transformed into a figure dressed in black robes wearing a Death Eater mask. The figure reached up with a pale hand to remove the mask. Harry caught a glimpse of blond hair before Draco transformed it into a clown. 

When it was Harry’s turn to face the boggart, Remus jumped in front of Harry causing it to turn into a white orb, which Harry realized was the full moon. With a wave of his wand Remus transformed it into a balloon. 

“Excellent!” called Remus, “That’s it for today, five points to everyone who faced the boggart and five for Neville and Harry for answering questions.”

While everyone grabbed their stuff, Harry walked up to Remus.

“Why didn’t you let me face the boggart?”

“I didn’t want Voldemort showing up in the classroom,” he told Harry.

“Oh,” said Harry, surprised, “To be honest, I didn’t even think about Voldemort.”

“No?”

“No. I know I should probably fear him above all else, but I don’t. I know he did horrible things and that he killed my parents, but I don’t know. I guess it doesn’t help that the first time I came face to face with him, that I can remember anyway, was when he was on the back of my teacher’s head and was burned by my touch.” 

“Well, if you would like to face the boggart, you can stop by my office later,” Remus told him, “In fact, definitely stop by later, I’m going to contact Sirius tonight after dinner and I’m sure he’d love to talk to you.”

Harry agreed and then walked over to join his friends. 

When he arrived at Remus’ office after dinner Remus handed him a bottle of butterbeer and they talked to Sirius through the fireplace.

After saying goodbye to Sirius, Remus led Harry out to the wardrobe. He threw open the wardrobe doors and to Harry’s surprise a dementor appeared. Harry stared at in shock until Remus once again jumped in front of him, causing the boggart to change to a moon which he quickly disposed of.

“A dementor?” said Harry, “Why would my boggart be a dementor?” 

“It seems, Harry,” said Remus, “that your greatest fear is fear itself.” 

“That spell you did on the train, to get rid of the dementor, expecto patronum, could you teach it to me?” 

Remus hesitated, watching him.

“I can try, but it’s a very difficult spell. You may not be able to perform it for a long time.” 

“That’s okay. I still want to try.” 

Remus nodded, “Alright, but not today, it’s getting late. We can meet on your breaks to work on it. You should head to bed now.” 

Harry said goodnight to Remus and then met his friends down by the forest where they made a quick visit to Norbert.

On there way back they suddenly heard a noise. Something was moving ahead of them.

“Is the car back?” asked Ginny.

Draco moved forward and suddenly let out a shriek of alarm. Draco was knocked to the ground and Harry saw Buckbeak rearing up.

Rolf ran forward and after bowing to Buckbeak, the hippogriff allowed him to move forward and help calm him down, “Hagrid must let the hippogriffs roam free, either that or he got out of the paddock.” 

“Are you alright Draco?” asked Hermione as Harry helped him to his feet.

“I’m alright, it’s just a scratch,” said Draco, “I didn’t see him there. I must have startled him.” 

They went back to the school after Rolf got Buckbeak back into the paddock and put the metal collar that was attached to a wooden post back on him to keep him from flying off. 

They went with Draco to the Hospital Wing were Madam Pomfrey was able to quickly mend his arm. He lied and told her that he fell and caught his arm on the edge of the stairs. They could tell that she didn’t believe him, but they hadn’t been able to think of a better excuse that wouldn’t reveal that they had been out in the forest. 

They went to the Room of Requirement and had the room appear with large comfortable couches and a projector which they used to play muggle movies late into the night. They watched Star Wars until they fell asleep and all agreed that they would have to try and make lightsabers.  


	6. Chapter Six

Chapter Six

As the weeks passed Defense Against the Dark Arts quickly became everyone’s favorite class. After boggarts they studied red caps, nasty goblin like creatures that lurked where there had been bloodshed like dungeons and deserted battlefields. Then they moved on to kappas, creepy water-dwellers that looked like scaly monkeys with webbed hands. 

Harry continued to meet with Remus during his breaks to work on his patronus.

Harry wished that he enjoyed Divination as much as Defense. He had begun to dread the hours spent with Professor Trelawney attempting to decipher lopsided symbols. It didn’t help that every time she saw Harry, Trelawney's eyes would start watering and she would start whispering about how young he was and what a tragedy it was.

Parvati Patil and Lavender Brown spent all their freetime with Trelawney in her tower and always came back with superior looks on their faces, like they knew stuff that the others didn’t. They would speak to Harry in a hushed tone, as though he were on his deathbed. Once Draco had gotten over his annoyance with Trelawney, he found the whole situation rather amusing. 

Rolf on the other hand used the class as an opportunity to catch up on his sleep. He had started bringing his pillow to class and would take naps. He told Trelawney that he sometimes had prophetic dreams, so she let him sleep.

With the start of October came the start of the Quidditch season. Harry returned to the Gryffindor Tower to change after a Quidditch practice to find the common room buzzing with excitement. The bulletin board had a notice about the first Hogsmeade weekend at the end of October on Halloween.

Harry and his friends were looking forward to going to Hogsmeade, though not as much as their classmates. They had already snuck into Hogsmeade several times, usually to restock their sweets from Honeydukes. 

Neville was worried because he couldn’t find his Hogsmeade permission slip, though the others assured him he could always just use the passage in the one eyed witch statue with Ginny and Luna to join them. But in the end Professor McGonagall told him that his grandmother had sent his permission slip to her personally, not trusting Neville to not lose it.

When Halloween came Harry left his invisibility cloak with Ginny and Luna, then the others joined the other third years heading towards Hogsmeade. 

Hogsmeade was the only all-wizarding village in all of Britain. It was a picturesque little village of cottages and shops. 

The group's first stop was Honeydukes which was crowded with students. They made their way to the back where Hermione opened the door to the basement to let in Ginny and Luna under the invisibility cloak. They quickly exited the shop, surrounding the two girls so no one would bump into them. They then ducked into a nearby alley and Harry stowed the cloak away in his bag.

“Now what?” asked Draco, “What should we do?”

“Well, I have a date,” said Rolf, offering his arm to Luna, “we’re going to Madam Puddifoot’s Tea Shop.” 

“Wow,” said Ginny, “I never thought you two would be so cliché.”

Rolf shrugged, but he had a slightly mischievous look on his face as the two walked off together. Once they left Harry turned towards the others.

“Want to go to Zonko’s?”

They headed to the joke shop where they loaded up on joke supplies. They then went to Dogweed and Deathcap, the herbology shop, so Neville could get some plants and seeds so he could start a garden in the Room of Requirement. Draco got some things at J. Pippin’s Potions and then they went to Tomes and Scrolls before going to the Three Broomsticks for butterbeer. 

They managed to find a table near the back that was empty, though it was a tight fit. Ginny ended up perching on top of the table and Harry was practically sitting in Draco’s lap. 

As they drank their butterbeer the conversation at the table next to him caught his attention. A man was talking to Madam Rosmerta, the owner of the inn.

“Did you hear, Bellatrix Lestrange was sighted near here by some muggle. Of course they don’t know who she is; by the time the Aurors got there she was long gone.”

Neville looked very pale as the group exchanged glances with each other. Bellatrix Lestrange was near the castle?

“She can’t get onto the school grounds,” said Hermione, trying to sound confident, “and there are dementors everywhere, they’d catch her if she came close. She has to know that, right?”

“I don’t know Hermione,” said Ron, “she is insane. Who's to say that she won’t try something?”

“I’m sure she won’t be able to get anywhere near us,” said Ginny, shooting her brother a look as she put a comforting hand on Neville’s shoulder, “We’re perfectly safe.”

“But we’ve found ways to come and go off school grounds as we please,” said Draco, making the group frown.

“We should seal up all the known hidden passages into the school,” said Harry, “just in case.”

They finished their butterbeers then met up with Rolf and Luna.

“How did your date go?” asked Ginny.

“I’ve never seen so much pink in my life,” said Rolf, “and I may have made fun of some of the other couples. And I don’t think they appreciated my music. I played the Rolling Stones, but clearly no one in there has good taste in music. And then I may have ‘accidentally’ released the pixies that I took from Lockhart last year, and they may have stolen the majority of the dollies.”

“Seriously?” asked Draco.

“I thought you already released the pixies,” said Hermione.

“I sort of forgot?” said Rolf, “Okay, I was saving them for an opportune moment.”

“But they’re free now,” said Luna, “and they seemed very happy. I now have doilies.” She held up a small pile of lace doilies.

The others told them about what they had heard about Bellatrix Lestrange. They then went to Honeydukes, and after buying sweets, they snuck into the passage in the basement and sealed it behind them. When they got back to Hogwarts they also sealed the entrance in the statute.

Once that was done they went to the Great Hall for the Halloween feast, which wasn’t interrupted this year by trolls, messages in blood, or anything else. 

That night they snuck out of the castle and went to the whomping willow which hid a passage into the Shrieking Shack in Hogsmeade. Remus had told Harry that he used to use the passage to get to the shack to transform into his werewolf form.

Harry transformed into his animagus form, a black fox with a silver tipped tail and tapped the root that caused the giant tree to stop moving. They made their way to the Shrieking Shack and setup warning wards around the building that would let them know if anyone tried to enter the building from Hogsmeade and sealed the entrances. They wouldn’t be able to seal the entrance from the Hogwarts grounds since Remus still needed to enter the building during the full moon.

They then went back to the castle and took turns watching their map to make sure Bellatrix Lestrange didn’t appear on it.   


	7. Chapter Seven

Chapter Seven

As the first Quidditch match of the season approached the weather turned foul. It downpoured everyday with thunder in the distance and the wind could be heard blowing from inside the castle’s stone walls. By the day before the match the weather seemed to have gotten worse, not better.

Harry walked into Defense class and was shocked for a moment to see Snape at the front of the class instead of Remus. He had forgotten about the full moon. He sat down near the front with Neville, Ron, and Draco.

Snape stood up, silencing the class. 

“Since Professor Lupin has not left any record of the topics you have covered so far-”

“He did,” spoke up Harry, “he left it in the top drawer of his desk.”

Harry had been with Remus when he wrote out the class plans for Snape.

“We’ve done boggarts, red caps, kappas, and grindylows,” continued Harry, “We’re about to start-”

“Silence, Mr. Potter,” said Snape, “those are all creatures I would expect first years to be able to handle. That is why today we will covering-”

Snape flipped to the back of their textbook.

“-werewolves.”

Harry was filled with rage and he didn’t realize that he had started to rise from his seat until Draco grabbed his arm and pulled him down.

“We’re supposed to be doing hinkypunks,” said Draco, he managed to keep his voice calm, but Harry could see anger in his eyes as he looked at his godfather.

“You will continue with them when Professor Lupin returns. Until then, we are discussing werewolves. Turn to page 394.” He glanced around the classroom. “All of you, now!”

The class muttered bitterly as they flipped through their textbooks to the back. 

“Which of you can tell me how to distinguish between the werewolf and the true wolf?” said Snape.

Everyone sat motionless, the room was completely silent. Harry knew the answer, but he refused to participate in whatever game Snape thought he was playing. 

“Anyone?” asked Snape, his mouth twisting into a smile, “Has Professor Lupin failed to teach you the distinction between-”

“We told you,” said Parvati suddenly, “we haven’t gotten to werewolves yet.”

“Silence!” snarled Snape, “I expected better from a third year class. I will have to tell Dumbledore how far behind you are.”

The rest of the class was done in silence as everyone copied notes about werewolves from the textbook. At the end of the class Snape held them back after the bell rang.

“You will each write an essay, to be handed in to me, on the ways you recognize and kill werewolves. I want two rolls of parchment on the subject, and I want them by Monday morning.”

“That’s ridiculous!” cried Draco. As they left the classroom, Draco turned to the others, “I’m going to tell my mother about this. She needs to talk with Snape.”

Mrs. Malfoy had spent quite a bit of time with Remus over the summer and had been the one to convince Snape to brew the Wolfsbane Potion, a potion that relieves the symptoms of lycanthropy, for Remus. She had visited Potter Manor often with Draco, saying that she wanted to reconnect with Sirius, since they were cousins after all. According to Sirius she still continued to come over for tea often.

That night Harry snuck out to the Shrieking Shack in his fox form to be with Remus. Though the next morning his was exhausted and it was the day of the Quidditch match against Slytherin. 

The weather had gotten even worse and it was so dark it looked like it was still night. Thunder boomed and seemed to almost shake the castle. Harry knew better than to think the match would be cancelled, Quidditch was played in every type of weather.

At breakfast Draco didn’t look any happier about playing than Harry did.

“Maybe I can say my arm hurts and not have to play,” said Draco, rubbing the arm Buckbeak had scratched.

“Your arm is fine,” said Harry, “if I have to play in this, so do you.”

The two boys finished eating then went down to the Quidditch field to join their teams in getting ready. Harry pulled on a pair of goggles that would allow him to see without his glasses and had been waterproofed. They had been Hermione’s idea.

As the teams walked out onto the field, the wind was so strong that they were staggering. If the crowd was cheering, Harry couldn’t hear them with the weather. When they made it to the center of the field Harry watched Madam Hooch mouth, “Mount your brooms,” unable to hear her over the howling of the wind.

Harry rose into the air, his broom swerving slightly in the wind, and he struggled to hold it steady. Within minutes he was soaked and freezing and could barely make out his teammates, let alone the tiny golden snitch. He flew back and forth over the field, occasionally catching sight of Draco doing the same.

Time passed and the weather only got worse. The sky had darkened even more and it was getting harder and harder to hold his broom straight. He nearly hit another player twice and was nearly unseated by a bludger, even with the goggles he struggled to see anything.

Lightning split the sky overhead and thunder boomed a moment later. Throughout the match the storm had been getting closer, and now it seemed like it was right over them. Harry knew that he had to find the snitch and fast. 

Harry caught sight of Draco diving and Harry quickly took off after him.

But something odd was happening. An eerie silence had fallen over the stadium. Harry felt as though he had suddenly gone deaf, he could feel the wind blowing against him, but he could no longer hear it.

Then a familiar wave of cold hit him and he saw movement on the field. Harry looked down and saw what looked like close to a hundred dementors closing in on the field. It was like freezing water was rising in his chest, cutting at his insides. And then he heard it again, screaming, but this time he knew that he was hearing his mother, but there was another voice as well this time.

_ “Not Harry, not Harry, please not Harry!” _

_ “Stand aside, you silly girl...stand aside, now…” _

_ “Not Harry, please no, take me, kill me instead-” _

Harry’s brain seemed to be filled with swirling white mist and he felt numb. He no longer knew what was happening, what he was doing. He had to help his mum...he needed to help her.

He was falling, falling through the icy mist.

_ “Not Harry! Please...have mercy...have mercy…” _

A shrill voice was laughing, his mother screamed and then Harry knew no more.

 

Harry woke to whispers. He was lying in the hospital wing. His friends were there all looking like they had just climbed out of a swimming pool. Draco was still in his mud spattered Quidditch uniform.

“Harry!” said Neville, noticing that he was awake, “How’re you feeling?”

Harry felt as though he had just received a beating, his entire body was sore. He could remember only vague flashes.

“What happened?” he asked struggling to sit up, but Ginny pushed him back down.

“You fell off your broom,” said Ron, “must’ve been around fifty feet.”

“We though you died,” said Neville, who was shaking.

“You were lucky the grass was so soft,” said Luna.

Hermione made a small, squeaky noise. Her eyes were bloodshot.

“I’ve never seen Dumbledore so angry,” said Hermione in a quaking voice, “When you fell he ran onto the field and waved his wand, and sort of slowed you down before you hit the ground. Then he used a patronus on the dementors and they left right away. He was furious that they had entered the school grounds.”

“Is everyone else alright?” asked Harry thinking about all the other players.

“They’re fine,” said Ginny, “the Gryffindor team tried to sneak in to see you, but they made too much noise and were caught. Madam Pomfrey has already kicked us out twice, but we’ve managed to get back in each time. I think she’s resigned to the fact that we’re not leaving.”

“What happened with the match?” said Harry, “Will there be a replay?”

There was silence and Harry’s heart sank.

“Did we-lose?”

“I’m sorry Harry,” said Draco, “I caught the snitch after you fell. I didn’t realize what had happened. I tried to ask Madam Hooch for a rematch…”

“You should have seen the look on Flint’s face when Draco talked to Madam Hooch,” said Ron, “he looked like he wanted to murder him.”

“I’m sorry Harry,” repeated Draco.

“It’s alright,” said Harry. He was disappointed and he felt like he had let the Gryffindor Quidditch team down, but he didn’t blame Draco. 

“Did someone get my broom?”

The group glanced at each other, then over to Draco, who Harry noticed was clutching something wrapped in cloth.

“When you fell off, it got blown away,” said Rolf hesitantly.

“And?”

“It hit the whomping willow,” said Draco. He walked closer to Harry and held out the bundle for him to see. It was the broken remains of his broomstick, “It doesn’t look fixable, but there are enough school brooms for you to use one, so you’ll still be able to play.

Harry nodded glumly.

“Why were the dementors even there?”

“They must have been attracted by the crowd,” said Rolf, “They’ve had nothing to feed on now that they’ve left Azkaban and they haven’t found Lestrange. The Ministry thinks they can control them, but they can’t.” 

“Yeah,” said Ron, “we know that Bellatrix Lestrange was nowhere near because she didn’t appear on the map. Hermione checked it right away when we spotted the dementors.”

Madam Pomfrey came over to check on Harry then, she wanted him to stay in the hospital wing for the rest of the weekend, but Harry managed to convince her to let him go after his friends promised her that they would make him relax. 

They each went to their dorms to change into dry clothes and then met in the Room of Requirement to finish watching Return of the Jedi, since last time when they tried to watch the entire trilogy in one night they had ended up all falling asleep at various points in the movie. 

Rolf stopped in the kitchens to get food for the group to snack on after changing. Draco was the last one to join them, as he had to return his Quidditch uniform to Madam Hooch since no one was allowed to go out on the school grounds or near the Quidditch field after the dementor attack.

When Draco arrived the others were already sprawled out, taking up the entire couch. He stared at the group for a moment before just laying across them so that his feet were in Ron’s lap and his head was in Harry’s. Ron shoved Draco’s feet off him and Harry rolled his eyes at the blond, but he let him stay and he found himself running his hands through Draco’s hair during the movie.  


	8. Chapter Eight

Chapter Eight

Remus was back to teaching Defense on Monday and told the class that they wouldn’t have to write the paper on werewolves assigned to them by Snape. Harry had told Remus about the class Snape had taught and Remus said he would try to talk to Snape.

The class was relieved that they wouldn’t have to write the paper, except for Hermione who had already written the paper the day it had been assigned. 

After class Remus called Harry over.

“How are you feeling?” he asked Harry.

“Alright,” said Harry, “did you tell Sirius about my broom?”

“Yeah, he said that you should have knocked down that tree with the car when you had a chance,” said Remus with a small, but fond smile. Harry chuckled.

“I wish I could have been at the match,” said Remus, growing serious, “Dumbledore held a staff meeting after. I’ve never seen him so mad. The dementors have been growing restless for some time, wanting to get onto the school grounds, but Dumbledore wouldn’t let them.”

“Why do they affect me more than everyone else?” asked Harry, “Nobody else faints when they get close to them.” 

Remus sighed. A ray of wintery sunlight fell across the classroom, illuminating Remus’ grey hairs and the lines on his young face.

“Dementors are among the most foul creatures to roam the earth. They infest dark and filthy places and they glory in decay and despair. They drain peace, happiness, and hope from the very air around them. Even muggles feel their presence, though they can’t see them. When you get too close to a dementor it will suck out every good feeling and happy memory you have. If given the chance a dementor will feed on you until you’re a soulless husk, like them. They leave you with nothing but the worse memories, your worst experiences. And the worst that happened to you Harry, is enough to make anyone collapse. May I ask, do you hear anything when you’re close to the Dementors?”

“I hear my mum,” said Harry, “The first time I just heard her screaming, but this time I heard Voldemort too. She was pleading with him to save my life. To kill her instead.”

Remus winced and put a hand on Harry’s shoulders, “I’m sorry, I wish that you never had to hear that. I’ll make sure that I’m at the next match in case the dementors try to show up again, though they shouldn’t.”

“I need to work on my patronus,” said Harry. He had been meeting with Remus on breaks to practice, but so far he had been unable to produce a corporeal patronus. 

As time passed a holiday feeling began to spread through the castle. Professor Flitwick had decorated his classroom with lights that turned out to be real fairies.

The group wasn’t leaving the school as much as they had been before, worried that they would run into dementors. Though Harry had been teaching the others how to use the patronus charm, but just like Harry, none of them had managed a corporeal patronus yet.

The week before the Christmas break, an owl brought a package for Draco at breakfast. It was cookies, which Draco put in the center of the table for everyone to eat. Every time his mother sent Draco a letter, she would send him sweets, like cookies or cakes.

Harry gave one to Jormy who swallowed it in one bite.

Draco opened the letter as the others grabbed cookies. As he read, a frown appeared on his face.

“What’s wrong?” Harry asked him.

“My mother said that I shouldn’t come home for the holidays, that my dad has a lot of work to do, and I should see about spending the holidays at school or with one of you guys.” 

“Weird,” said Ron, “What do you think he’s doing?”

“I don’t know,” said Draco, frowning.

“Well you can come home with me and Remus for the holidays,” offered Harry.

Draco nodded and pulled out a quill to respond to his mother.

That weekend was a Hogsmeade trip and the group went down, surrounding Luna and Ginny who were under the invisibility cloak, as they walked to the village.

The trees had been covered with festive lights for the holidays and the village had a Christmas feel to it.

The group split up to do their Christmas shopping for each other then met up at the Three Broomsticks for butterbeer.

Jormy joined Harry in going to Hogsmeade, though he was buried in Harry’s clothes since he hated the cold. The occamy had been spending time with Basil and Norbert, though Harry had ridden with him at night a few more times. 

As they walked back to the castle Fred and George walked by them. 

“Hey sis,” called Fred.

“Hello Luna,” called George.

The group stopped and stared at the twins in shock, as the two grinned at them. After a moment Luna and Ginny pulled off the invisibility cloak. 

“How did you know we were there?” asked Ginny.

Fred pulled out a piece of paper, “This may interest you Harry.”

Harry walked over to look at the sheet, but it was blank.

“Wait, is this what I think it is?” he said, “You have the Marauder’s Map?”

“Indeed,” said George with a grin.

“And we thought that perhaps you would like it,” said Fred, “after all, you have a bigger claim to it than us.”

“Thanks,” said Harry, “but you can keep it. We actually made our own version of the map. But I’ll be sure to let Sirius know that the map is in the hands of good pranksters.”

The twins looked impressed when they heard that they made their own map and nodded, thanking Harry for letting them keep the map. The group made their way back to school with them, Luna and Ginny ducking back under the cloak. 

The next day everyone went home for the break on the Hogwarts Express. When they pulled into the station in London, Sirius greeted them. Mrs. Weasley gave them all hugs before Harry and Draco apparated with Remus and Sirius to Potter Manor.

The boys spent the majority of their time looking through Salazar Slytherin’s books, trying to find information on horcruxes and how to destroy them.The three horcruxes they had found were locked in a chest in Slytherin’s tower in the manor, which could only be accessed through parseltongue.

Draco also asked Harry to teach him parseltongue. Harry wasn't entirely sure if that was possible or not, but he did his best to teach Draco who wanted to try talking to Basil the basilisk when they got back to school.

On Christmas the boys were woken by a very excited Sirius, who literally dragged them down for breakfast. But once they got some food in them and started to wake up, they found Sirius’ enthusiasm to be contagious. 

They moved to the parlor after breakfast to open their gifts. Jormy watched them curiously from where he was curled up in front of the fire.  

Harry and Draco both got a completed charmed wrist watch from Hermione. The watch had a normal face that told the time, but you could twist it to switch the face to show one that showed school, home, travelling, lost, hospital, safe, and mortal peril instead of the time. The cloak hands had Harry, Draco, Neville, Ron, Hermione, Rolf, Luna, and Ginny written on them. Each person had their own watch face which could be revealed with a twist of the watch. If one of the hands went to mortal peril the watch would beep and switch to show that person’s watch face.

Ron and Ginny gave them sweets from Honeydukes and Mrs. Weasley gave them both handknit sweaters. Harry’s was red with a lion and Draco’s was grin with a snake. She also sent them mince pies, Christmas cake, and nut brittle.

Rolf gave them both feather quills that were made from phoenix feather and enchanted to draw in different colors without the need for ink.

Luna gave Harry a miniature broomstick that was enchanted to fly around. Jormy began chasing the little broom around the room.

Neville gave Harry sugar quills from Zonko’s Joke Shop.

Draco gave Harry a scroll that he found in Tomes and Scrolls that had a strange sort of lock shaped like a snake that would only open with parseltongue. Mrs. Malfoy gave him a beautiful dark red cloak made out of some of the softest material Harry had ever felt.  

Remus gave Harry books on rare darker magic.

Sirius gave Harry a Firebolt, the newest and fastest broomstick on the market.

“Don’t let that blasted tree destroy this one,” said Sirius with a grin when he gave it to Harry.

Later that night Draco talked to his mother through the floo system, but he looked worried when he was finished talking to her.

“Something is wrong,” Draco told Harry, “I don’t know what, but she’s not telling me something.”

When Harry went to bed that night his thoughts lingered on the Malfoys as he wondered what Mr. Malfoy was up to that Mrs. Malfoy didn’t want Draco around for.   


	9. Chapter Nine

Chapter Nine

Harry was woken in the middle of the night by Draco, at least it felt like the middle of night. It was two days after Christmas and Draco hadn’t heard anything else from his mother and had started to worry.

“Harry,” he hissed in the dark, “I think my mother’s in trouble. I just had this weird dream, and I think we need to help her.”

“Draco, it was just a dream,” said Harry, although he was also worried about Mrs. Malfoy, “I’m sure she’s fine.”

“But what if she’s not?” asked Draco, fear in his voice, “I want to see her, to make sure.”

“How?” said Harry sitting up and fumbling to turn on a light, “She’s at Malfoy Manor. Even if we could apparate, the wards would stop us and we can’t just floo there without them knowing.”

“I know,” said Draco, “but I’ve been thinking, what about Dobby? He can get past wards and he used to work at the manor, he could get us there without anyone knowing.”

Harry though it over for a moment. It was true that house elf magic was different and Dobby didn’t seem to have any difficulty with getting past wards. Who was to say that he couldn’t get them past the wards as well?

“Let’s ask him then,” said Harry, getting out of bed. At the foot of the bed, Jormy made a grumbling noise at being disturbed.

“Dobby,” called Draco and the little house elf appeared in front of them.

“Hello sirs!” squeaked Dobby enthusiastically.

“You don’t have to call us that,” Harry reminded the house elf with a smile.

“Dobby,” asked Draco, “could you get us to Malfoy Manor, past the wards?”

Dobby nodded, his large ears flapping.

“Certainly, Dobby can do that.”

“Okay,” said Harry, “just give us a moment.”

The two boys quickly got dressed and grabbed their wands. Harry also grabbed his invisibility cloak. 

Dobby held out his hands to the boys and they each took one. Harry felt a strange sensation that felt similar to apparating, but not quite the same. Harry’s room disappeared and was replaced with Draco’s room in Malfoy Manor.

“Thanks Dobby,” said Harry, “that’s all for now. We’ll call you when we need to get back to Potter Manor.”

Dobby nodded and disappeared with a snap, leaving Harry and Draco alone. Harry pulled the invisibility cloak out and the two slipped under it. They left Draco’s room after placing silencing charms on their shoes.

They checked Draco’s parents room first, but it was empty.

“They might be in the study,” whispered Draco and the two crept down the hall in the direction of the study. 

As they approached the room they could see light coming from under the door and they could hear voices, one man and one woman. At first Harry thought the woman was Mrs. Malfoy, but as they got closer he realized that it didn’t sound quite right. 

They went to the door and Draco slowly turned the handle and pushed the door open enough so that they could peek in.

The light in the room came from the fireplace and Harry could see Mr. Malfoy sitting in an armchair in front of it, his blond hair was unmistakable. Standing in front of the fire, her back to the door was a woman that was definitely not Mrs. Malfoy.

She had thick, long dark hair that went nearly to her waist and Harry could tell that she was extremely skinny despite the fine dress she wore.

The woman was in the middle of saying something to Mr. Malfoy.

“He’s out there Lucius, I can feel it.”

“No one has heard from him in years,” said Mr. Malfoy in a way that suggested that this wasn’t the first time he had had this conversation with the woman, “surely if he were alive he would have come to us-”

“Fool,” hissed the woman, turning to face Mr. Malfoy, her face covered in shadows, “why would he come to us? He expects us to find him, to help him regain his power. We are his servants. We go to him, not the other way around.”

The woman stepped forward and Harry nearly gasped, he felt Draco stiffen next to him. The woman was Bellatrix Lestrange. Though she didn’t look as insane or malnourished as her picture in the  _ Daily Prophet _ , it was unmistakably her.

Suddenly Harry and Draco were grabbed by the shoulder and pulled away from the door. Harry turned and saw a very displeased looking Mrs. Malfoy. She turned the boys around and marched them in front of her until they were in the manor’s front entrance.

“Cloak off, now,” she demanded in a voice that allowed for no arguments, and the boys pulled off the invisibility cloak.

“How did you know we were there?” asked Draco, his voice unusually high, “How did you know we were even here?”

“Do you think I’m an idiot?” hissed Mrs. Malfoy, the anger clear in her voice, “Wizards may be unable to detect house elf magic, but other elves can detect it. And there are plenty of loyal house elves here that are more than willing to alert the lady of the house of the arrival of another house elf along with two others. It wasn’t hard to figure out exactly who it was.”

“But the cloak,” said Harry.

“I’m well aware of your cloak,” she told Harry, “I know that Dumbledore gave it to you for Christmas two years ago and I know the stories about the cloak being passed through the Potter line from the Peverells and what some people think it is. I also went to school with your father for two years.” 

“What’s going on mum?” asked Draco, “What is Bellatrix Lestrange doing here?”

Mrs. Malfoy heaved out a sigh and placed a hand to her forehead, most of her angry fading away, leaving her looking tired.

“It’s complicated, Bellatrix is my sister, and she isn’t easily turned away,” she said with a dry, humorless chuckle.

“But what is she  _ doing _ ?” demanded Draco.

“She wants your father to help her find Voldemort. She has the most ridiculous notion that he’s somehow still alive.”

Harry and Draco exchanged looks and Mrs. Malfoy’s eyes narrowed.

“What?” she said, her voice demanding.

“He is alive,” Harry told her after a moment, “Voldemort is alive.”

“What?” repeated Mrs. Malfoy, this time in shock, “How can you know this? How is that possible?”

“Horcruxes,” said Harry.

Mrs. Malfoy’s eyes widened in horror and her mouth opened and closed for a moment before she found her voice.

“Horcruxes?” her voice was just above a whisper, “Horcruxes, plural? You’re sure?”

Both boys nodded and Mrs. Malfoy seemed to age before their eyes, placing a hand to her temple with a long sigh.

“Great,” she hissed through gritted teeth, “this is just great.”

She heaved another sigh and looked at the two boys for a moment.

“You better go. You can floo back to Potter Manor.”

“But mum-”

“No, Draco,” said Mrs. Malfoy sternly, “you can’t stay here, it’s too dangerous. You must leave, now.”

“Won’t Mr. Malfoy know that the floo is being used?” asked Harry as Mrs. Malfoy grabbed a container with floo powder from the fireplace mantel and threw it into the flames, turning them bright green.

“Yes,” answered Mrs. Malfoy, “but when you open the floo line, you can’t tell if it’s being used for transport or to talk with someone on the other end. I’ll tell him that I was talking with Draco.”

Mrs. Malfoy then turned to Draco and gave him a long hug and a kiss on the cheek. She then turned to Harry and hugged him as well. 

“Go,” she said, holding the floo powder out to Draco, who took a handful and stepped into the fireplace. He threw the powder into the flames and said ‘Potter Manor’ and disappeared in a roar of flames.

Harry took a handful of the powder and was about to step into the flames, when Mrs. Malfoy stopped him with a hand on his arm.

“Don’t go looking for trouble Harry,” she told him, “and please, look out for Draco.”

Harry nodded and stepped into the fireplace and threw the powder, saying ‘Potter Manor’ and he too disappeared into the floo network. 


	10. Chapter Ten

Chapter Ten

The rest of the break was subdued for Harry and Draco, each thinking about Bellatrix searching for Voldemort. What was the chances of her finding him, wondered Harry. He had a bad feeling that it was pretty high. After all, Quirrell had managed to find Voldemort, and Bellatrix and Lucius were both his followers. They knew him a lot better and would have ideas of where to start looking, and Bellatrix didn’t seem like the type to give up easily. 

That year for the first time in decades, the Malfoy family didn’t host a new years party. Everyone assumed that it was because of Bellatrix's escape, and that they didn’t want to draw any unnecessary attention to themselves. If only they knew just how right they were thought Harry. 

When they met up with the others on the Hogwarts Express they quickly picked up on Harry and Draco’s odd mood and the boys told them about their visit to the Malfoy Manor.

“Bellatrix is at Malfoy Manor!” cried Ron, and the others shushed him.

“You need to tell someone,” said Hermione, “Dumbledore, or the ministry, someone.”

“She’s not there anymore,” said Draco, “mother sent me a letter yesterday that she left with my father. Probably to find Voldemort. She doesn’t know where they went, they don’t want anyone to be able to get the information from her. I’d rather not have people know that Bellatrix was staying at my home, it will just bring trouble.” 

“What happens if they find Voldemort?” asked Neville.

“They find a body,” said Luna, causing everyone to look at her, “he’s still just a wandering spirit without a body.”

Harry nodded.

“Yeah, that’s why he was after the Philosopher’s stone,” said Harry, “He needed it to form a body.”

“Can he get a body without the stone?” asked Ginny.

“He used Quirrell last time,” said Ron, “he could just jump from body to body like that.”

“He could,” said Harry, “but he wants a body. His own body.”

“There are different dark spells and potions that may help him acquire a temporary body until he can get his own,” said Draco.

“And don’t forget,” said Rolf, “he’s been willing to use unicorn blood before and that keeps a person alive.” 

The ride back to Hogwarts was mostly in silence after that, each of them wondering where Voldemort was and if his followers were close to finding him.

When they got to Hogwarts they finished the feast as fast as possible and then went to the Room of Requirement where they had Dobby bring them books from the Malfoy and Potter libraries to work on research. They had decided that if Voldemort was most likely going to be returning soon, then they needed to find a way to destroy his Horcruxes and fast.

“Do you think he has more than three?” asked Ginny as they worked.

“I think he was aiming for seven,” said Luna, “seven is a lucky number.”

“Great,” said Draco, “so he could potentially have four more Horcruxes out there. Which means we’re going to have to find them all.” 

“Well we know that Gryffindor’s sword and Hufflepuff’s cup are most likely Horcruxes since he used the other two founders items,” said Rolf.  

“What do we know about the sword?” asked Ginny.

“It’s a thousand years old and made by goblins,” said Hermione, “it's said to be enchanted and made of pure silver with rubies. No one knows where it is now, but it’s said to appear to a true and worthy Gryffindor in their time of need.”

“I’d say this is our time of need,” said Draco, “Harry, Ron, Neville, one of you needs to get that sword.” 

“What about the cup?” Rolf asked Hermione.

“It’s gold with two handles and badger engraved on the side,” said Hermione, “it was passed down through Hufflepuff’s family, but it’s lost now. It was said to have been stolen around the time Voldemort would have left Hogwarts. ”

“Of course no one knows where they are,” said Ron, “if we knew where they were, that would be too easy.” 

Ginny was frowning.

“One thing that’s been bugging me is that I still don’t know how I got the diary last year,” she said, “It just appeared in my cauldron with my school books. Maybe if we figure that out, it will help us figure out the rest.”

“Actually,” said Harry, shooting a look at Draco, “I think Mr. Malfoy gave it to you. Remember when he bumped into you at the bookstore? I think he slipped into your cauldron.”

Draco opened his mouth as though to argue, but stopped.

“I guess that would explain why Dobby knew Hogwarts would be dangerous,” said Draco after a moment.

“Okay,” said Rolf, “we just need to think this through. What if Voldemort gave the items to his followers? I mean, he gave the diary to Draco’s father and Harry found the locket in one of his follower’s rooms. It would make sense if he gave the sword and cup to his followers as well.”

“But would he have been able to find the sword?” asked Neville, “He wasn’t a Gryffindor.”

“Yeah,” said Ron, “There was Pettigrew, but he was definitely not a true and worthy Gryffindor.” 

“So let’s assume that only the cup was made into a Horcrux, what else would he have used?” said Harry.

“Another powerful object,” said Draco, “the diary was his, the locket would have been his through the line of Slytherin, he must have stolen the cup and found the diadem. What other powerful item would he have been able to find.”

“He was descended from the Peverells,” said Harry, “just like me. The cloak was passed down to me, supposedly from them, what about the stone? It would have been passed down through his family.”

“Of course,” said Draco, “the Gaunt family was said to have the Resurrection Stone. If it really exists like your cloak does, Voldemort would have inherited it.” 

“Which followers do you think Voldemort trusted enough to give his Horcruxes to?” asked Neville.

“My aunt is extremely loyal,” said Draco, “insanely so, literally. I wouldn’t be surprised if she had one.”

“Where would she keep it?” asked Ginny, “It would have to be someplace safe, even when she was in Azkaban.”

“Where does any wizard place their valuables?” said Rolf, “Gringotts. Sirius didn’t lose his vaults there even when he was in Azkaban, I bet Bellatrix’s vaults also remained secure throughout her imprisonment.”

“I think she has the cup,” said Luna.

“Okay, cup for Bellatrix it is,” said Harry. 

“Does this mean we have to break into Gringotts?” asked Neville nervously.

“Yep,” said Rolf cheerfully, “I hear they have dragons. I say we set them free and use that as a diversion.” 

“We’re seriously considering breaking into Gringotts?” said Hermione.

“Oh we’re not considering,” said Draco, “we’re planning on it. I bet Bellatrix's vault used to be a Black vault, so it would be near the current Black vaults.”

“I know where those are,” said Harry, “I went with Sirius to his vault. It’s really deep under Gringotts.” 

“I bet animals can get into Gringotts,” said Luna, “and we do have a piece of Death’s cloak.” 

“I think we just may pull this off,” said Harry.  


	11. Chapter Eleven

Chapter Eleven

For the next several weeks the group worked on their plan to break into Gringotts. They would also sneak into Hogsmeade to practice apparating.

Apparition wasn’t something taught to students until they were older. In order to practice apparition legally a license was required, but you had to be at least seventeen to be able to get an apparition license. 

In order to apparate one had to use the three D’s: Destination, Determination, and Deliberation. One must be completely determined to reach one's destination, and move without haste, but with deliberation.

The group wasn’t going to even try to apparate to Bellatrix’s vault, even if apparition into the bank could be done, which they highly doubted, they didn’t know what the vault looked like. Instead they were planning to apparate to Diagon Alley so they could go to Gringotts without having to call the Knight Bus since they didn’t want anyone to know that they were in Diagon Alley on the day of the robbery.

Once they were all able to apparate around Hogsmeade with confidence they waited until the weekend before apparating to Diagon Alley outside Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour. 

Apparating such a far distance was difficult and Harry felt as though he was being pressed and pulled in all directions. He couldn’t breath and he felt as though his eyeballs were being pressed out of his head. But he made it to Diagon Alley and so did the others, though they had to rest for a little while before they headed to Gringotts. 

When they got close to the bank they stepped into a side alley and Harry, Draco, Hermione, and Rolf turned into their animagus forms and Luna threw the invisibility cloak over them. 

They had decided to split into two groups with Ginny, Neville, Ron and Luna staying outside the bank in case anything happened and they needed to use their plan B. Harry also took Jormy with him.

The group under the cloak headed towards the bank's main doors and snuck in after a man opened the door. 

The entrance into Gringotts was warded against deception, but luckily nothing happened when they entered. The combination of the invisibility cloak and their animagus forms must have done the trick. 

The bank was busy since it was a Saturday. They had debated on when to go and had decided that the crowd would help hide their presence in the bank. 

They carefully made their way to the crowd, being sure not to bump into anyone. They went to the door that led to the carts and waited for someone to go through the doors, then sneaked into the cart with them. They went with a witch who was going to a vault on a higher level. They knew that the further down you went the more spells to detect thieves the cart would go through.

They got out of the cart and waited for the witch to finish up at her vault. Once the cart was gone they changed back to their human forms and removed the invisibility cloak. They cast charms on themselves that caused shadows to gather around them. They then pulled out broomsticks that they had shrunk and returned them to their normal size and mounted them. 

They flew off the platform and over the dark chasm through the tunnels and then dove down. They went down flying past platform after platform with vaults. Harry led the way to the Black vaults and they flew towards the platform. 

In front of a section of vaults was a gigantic dragon that dwarfed Norbert in size. The dragon’s scales were white, but it looked as though they had lost their color overtime from being underground for so long and they looked flaky and dull. The leathery skin was stretched over its bony form which looked sickly and thin. It’s body was marred by think scars and open gashes. It was tethered down, both its rear legs bore heavy cuffs from which chains led to enormous pegs driven deep into the rocky floor. 

It turned its head towards them and Harry could see that its eyes were a milky pink color. 

Rolf made a pained noise in the back of his throat at the sight of the dragon, but he pulled out a pair of metal instruments and began shaking them to make a loud, ringing noise like miniature hammers on an anvil. 

The dragon whined at the noise and Jormy grew larger and landed next to the dragon just out of its reach. He gave the dragon a warning growl. The others landed behind Jormy and dismounted. They walked up to a very old looking vault door after stowing the brooms away.

They had thought about how to get into the vault for a long time. They had decided that Voldemort wouldn’t allow Bellatrix to put his Horcrux somewhere he couldn’t get to it whenever he wanted. Goblins wouldn’t just hand out more keys to a vault, so he would need a way to get in without a key.

_ “Open,” _ hissed Harry in parseltongue and sure enough the door to the vault opened. 

They cast lumos and began looking through the piles of gold, jewels, and ancient artifacts. They made their way cautiously into the vault, making sure to not touch anything. Harry knew that families could request to have the spells cast on the objects to protect them. The spells would continuously be renewed on every Sunday since certain magical objects could cause spells to deteriorate overtime. Harry had gotten the information from Griphook, the goblin who handled his vaults. He had talked to Griphook as though he were interested in having spells added to his vault.

Since it was Saturday the spells wouldn’t be renewed until the next day, and Harry knew that spells wouldn’t last very long on the cup because such weak spells would erode on such a dark object.   

Suddenly Harry felt the pull of the Horcrux and nearly stumbled forward. His heart seemed to skip a beat and his hands trembled when he caught sight of the gold cup up on a high self.

“There it is!” said Harry and the others made their way cautiously to him.

The three boys lifted Hermione up cautiously so she could grab it. Hermione reached slowly for the cup, she had cast the impervius charm on herself in case there was still a spell on it. She grabbed the cup and they sighed in relief when nothing happened. The boys cautiously lowered her down and she stowed it in her bag.

They walked out of the vault and closed it behind them. Rolf eyed the dragon as they walked.

“Rolf,” said Draco in a warning voice, “Don’t do it.”

Rolf bit his lip and then ran for the dragon forcing the others to follow him. Rolf pointed his wand at the thick cuffs and yelled,  _ “Relashio!” _

With loud bangs the cuffs broke open, releasing the dragon who didn’t seem to realize it was free. 

Rolf ran towards the dragon and climbed onto its back and was joined by Hermione. Harry and Draco jumped onto Jormy. Harry hit a button on his wristwatch twice, which would alert the others that they were coming and they were using plan B. 

The dragon had become aware that it was free and it reared up with a roar. Its wings opened wide and it blasted flames through the tunnel, causing the floor and tunnel to crumble. The dragon moving up through the gap in the ceiling, clawing its way up. Hermione yelled,  _ “Defodio!” _

She was helping enlarge the opening and the others quickly joined her in helping. They made their way forward quickly and soon they could see cracks in the ceiling above them letting down light. The ceiling gave way without them doing anything and they were out of the tunnels. The ceiling of the bank had collapsed and Harry could see Neville, Ron, Luna, and Ginny flying on brooms above the gap, though they had used charms so they just looked like dark shadows, their identities impossible to decipher, the same as the others. 

They had destroyed the roof and the floor of Gringotts, allowing the others to climb out. They were also engaged with the wizards in the bank, exchanging spells with those who hadn’t fled. 

The dragon was finally able to fully spread its wings and it took off into the air. Rolf and Hermione jumped off the dragon and Jormy swerved to catch them on his back. 

The sight of the dragon and the occamy caused the wizards who had stayed to try and defend the bank to flee. Jormy took to the air behind the dragon and those on brooms flew around him. They flew until they could no longer see Diagon Alley then landed on a roof top. Jormy shrunk down and they quickly apparated back to Hogwarts. 

They spent the rest of the day in the Room of Requirement until Dobby brought them a copy of the  _ Prophet _ which had information about the break in. No one knew who had broken in and they all sighed in relief.  


	12. Chapter Twelve

Chapter Twelve

The next day at breakfast the castle was filled with talk about the Gringotts break in. The group had spread copies of the  _ Daily Prophet _ around their table as though they were talking about it as well. 

They were all exhausted, Rolf had pretty much given up on trying to stay awake and had pulled out a pillow. Harry honestly couldn’t tell if Draco was awake or if he had managed to fall asleep sitting up. 

After everything that had happened the day before they had been full of too much energy to sleep, so they ended up staying up most of the night. They had started out working on attempting to make lightsabers, which didn’t work. But that somehow turned into impromptu sword fighting lessons with the Room of Requirement helpfully giving them books on the art of sword fighting and wooden practice swords. 

They had managed to keep it pretty organized at first, with Hermione reading the books and then attempting to demonstrate the basic stances. But then Ron accidently hit Rolf over the head with his sword starting a  sword fight that lasted long into the morning. They discovered that out of all of them, Neville was the best sword fighter. Draco told him that meant it was his job to find the sword of Gryffindor. Luna just smiled and told him that his sword skills would be useful in the future.

Harry was just pouring himself another cup of tea when Luna perked up and looked at him.

“Remus wants to talk to you,” she told, making Harry freeze. He talked with Remus a lot, but why would Luna find it important enough to tell him, unless, no, “He knows.”

Everyone stopped what they were doing and started at Luna who looked completely calm. 

“Great,” muttered Harry, “at least we can trust him not to send us to Azkaban.”

He got up deciding he should go see Remus now before he got a chance to come looking for him. Might as well get it over with. The others wished him luck as he went to the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom. 

He went to Remus’s office and walked in when he saw that the door was open.

“Hello,” he said cheerfully flopping onto one of the chairs in front of the desk. Remus looked up from his copy of the  _ Daily Prophet _ and raised an eyebrow at him. Harry just grinned, “So what do you think about the breakout?”

Remus sighed and leaned back.

“Well they still haven’t found the dragon,” he said, “they’ve called in different dragon experts to help find it.”

“Yeah,” said Harry, “I read that. Rolf is thrilled that they haven’t found it yet. His father and grandfather have been asked to help find it. They’re refusing to help unless the Ministry can guarantee that it won’t go back to Gringotts. Rolf is sending out letters through are organization to help magical creatures to let the dragon go free. Branch out from just house elves.” 

“And how is Jormy doing after all the excitement?” asked Remus casually.

“Oh he’s fine,” replied Harry just as casually, “he’s out hunting in the forest.” 

“You don’t seem surprised that I know that it was you,” said Remus staring at Harry.

Harry shrugged one shoulder, “There are benefits to having a friend who is basically all knowing.”

Remus sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose.

“Do you realize how stupid and reckless this stunt was? Not to mention dangerous!” he sounded more tired than anything.

“Hey,” said Harry, “you know if Sirius were here he’d be proud.”

Remus looked at him incredulously before he burst out laughing that had a slight hysterical edge to it. 

“I’d like to say that you’re wrong, but I know that you’re right, pup,” he said shaking his head, “but why in Merlin’s name did you break into Gringotts?”

Harry reached into his bag and pulled out Hufflepuff’s cup. “For this, it’s one of Voldemort’s horcruxes.”

Remus’ eyes widened and he picked up the cup to examine it.

“Voldemort will return,” said Harry turning serious, “Bellatrix Lestrange and Lucius Malfoy are currently looking for him and I don’t doubt that they will find him, and when they do there will be another war. One that we can only end for good once we destroy all of Voldemort’s horcruxes.”

Remus sighed, managing to look even older.

“Alright,” he said after a long moment of silence, “but next don’t put yourself in such danger.”

“Don’t worry,” said Harry nodding, “I’ll let you know next time I want to do something stupid and recklessly dangerous.”

Remus groaned at this, but he looked like he was trying not to smile.

“Just get out of here before I decide to punish you. Oh, and I’ll lock up the cup for you,” he said picking up the horcrux.

Harry nodded in thanks before leaving the office and heading to the Room of Requirement to meet up with his friends. As he was walking Jormy flew down the hall and landed on his shoulder, rubbing his head against Harry’s chin.

“Hey,” said Harry grinning, “good hunting?”

Jormy made a small squeaking noise that Harry took as an affirmative.

He entered the Room of Requirement to find his friends all waiting eagerly for him to return, except Luna who looked as calm as ever. Harry wondered if anything ever truly surprised her.

“Well, that was surprisingly not horrible,” said Harry flopping down next to Draco, startling the blond who was still struggling to stay awake, “he took it rather well once I explained why we broke into the vault.” 

“Good,” said Rolf, “I say we take the rest of the school year off and just relax.”

“No!” cried Hermione, “We can’t relax, we need to start studying for finals! They will be here before you know it.”

She reached into her bag and started pulling out pieces of parchment.

“Here,” she said passing them out, “I made us each study schedules.” 

Harry’s eyes widened at the sight of the schedule Hermione had made for him, it was even color coded.

“Ah, Hermione,” said Rolf, “I think you forgot a few things.”

“What?” said Hermione leaning over to look at his schedule.

“Oh I don’t know,” said Draco, “Maybe sleep? And eating?”

“There is still plenty of time for that,” said Hermione defensively, “though we may have to cut our meals short.”

“Bloody hell!” cried Ron looking at Hermione's schedule, “I don’t think you’ll have time for anything! How are you still taking so many classes, I thought you would have been forced to drop some of them by now.” 

Hermione looked slightly uncomfortable, “I can manage it just fine. And it’s not like we actually do anything in Divination. I might just stop going to that class.”

Hermione hated the class with a passion while the others mostly saw it as a free period to do nothing and Rolf was still using it as an opportunity to take naps. Hermione kept threatening to just stop going, but Draco had pointed out that she would be proving Trelawney's prediction about losing someone in the spring true if she did.  

Ginny leaned over to look at her schedule as well and her eyes widened.

“I have to agree with my brother on this,” she said, “that’s impossible.”

“Only if you’re limited to being in one place at a time,” said Luna were she sat stroking Jormy who was attempting to take a bite out of her radish earrings. 

“Wait a minute!” cried Draco, “That’s it! You have a time turner, don’t you?”

“Time turner?” said Harry. He could remember reading something about them when they were researching magical artifacts when they were first trying to figure out what the diary was.

Hermione sighed and reached into her shirt to pull out a long gold chain with a little hourglass in a gold ring on it. They all leaned forward to get a closer look.

“You’ve had a time turner and didn’t tell us!” exclaimed Ron.

“She had a time turner and you knew and didn’t tell me!” Rolf said to Luna.

“Professor McGonagall told me to not tell anyone,” said Hermione defensively, “messing with time is a dangerous and tricky business. I had to get permission from the Ministry to be allowed to use it.”

“I remember my Gran telling me a story about a wizard who messed with time,” said Neville, “he changed the past and ended up never being born!”

“Which is why we can’t use it,” said Hermione tucking it back in her shirt, “I only use it to get to all my classes.” 

“You’re insane,” said Draco, “you know that right?”

Hermione ignored him and picked up her study schedule.

“We need to get started on studying today if we want to be ready for finals,” she informed them.

“What do you have to be worried about?” said Ron.

“Yeah,” agreed Draco, “everyone knows you’ll be at the top of the class just like the past two years. Besides we’re all ahead of our classmates with all the practice we’ve done.” 

“Well I for one want to go ride Norbert tonight,” declared Rolf, “before all this studying kills me.” 

They spent the rest of the day studying and practicing spells to appease Hermione and then in the evening they went down to the forbidden forest. 

“Why do you think it’s called the forbidden forest?” asked Rolf, “Do you think it was ever just called the forest?” 

At the edge of the trees, as though waiting for them, was the blue Ford Anglia. They piled in with Hermione driving and headed towards the clearing were Norbert lived. The ride was bumpy and Draco yelped when they hit a large bump that caused him to go flying into Harry. 

“Can you drive any better!” he cried to Hermione who sent him a glare.

“We’re in the middle of the forest,” she shot back, “and I don’t exactly have a driver’s license, this is illegal!”

“Can you imagine what Professor McGonagall would think,” said Rolf, “Harbouring a dragon in the forest, befriending a basilisk, breaking into Gringotts, and now adding illegally driving to the list, where will it end?” 

As they neared the clearing the car decided that it would take them no further and the doors popped open and they were all sent flying out of the vehicle. 

“Bloody hell!” cried Ron as he hit the ground. Next to him Ginny landed on top of Neville. 

“I hate that car!” cried Draco from where he had landed on the ground.

“Bye car!” called Rolf as the Ford Anglia drove off into the forest. 

“Thank you,” Luna called after it.

Harry stood up and offered a grumpy looking Draco a hand.

“Just think,” he told the blond, “if Voldemort ever shows up at Hogwarts again, we can just run him over with it.”

They made their way to the clearing were Hagrid was waiting for them with Norbert. They had sent Hedwig with a letter to Hagrid earlier inviting him to come see Rolf’s flight. 

Norbert had grown to be nearly twice as big Hagrid’s house with midnight black scales and gold curling horns.

“Hello everyone!” called Hagrid when they entered the clearing. 

“Hello Hagrid,” they chorused walking up to the half giant. 

Jormy stuck his head out of Harry’s shirt and gave Norbert a greeting. 

Rolf approached Norbert and cautiously climbed onto his back. Norbert stayed still as if unsure of what to do. But after a moment the dragon spread his wings and took off into the air. Rolf cheered as Norbert began flying around the clearing.

“Go Norbert!” yelled Hagrid looking close to tears. The others joined in with his cheering. Eventually Hagrid said that they should head back to the castle, that it was getting late. Rolf reluctantly came down and they walked through the forest with Hagrid. They said goodnight and headed up to the castle. 

Hermione told them that they needed to go to bed nice and early to get a head start on their studying and they all groaned.    


	13. Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Thirteen

Hermione was going crazy studying and the others were trying to get her to relax. Eventually she agreed to do something besides studying, though her idea was to start a book club. They all agreed if it meant her taking a break. They sent Dobby with muggle money to buy the books Hermione wanted them to read, which was The Lord of the Rings trilogy and The Hobbit. 

After they started reading it Rolf began calling Dumbledore Gandalf every time he saw him. And once Dumbledore turned to Rolf and said, “You shall not pass.” 

To Hermione’s disappointment Rolf was focusing less on studying and more on pranks. He had learned the spell Draconifors, which turned statues of dragons into real dragons that the caster controlled. He now walked through the hallways blasting muggle music and being followed by a horde of dragons. 

Everyone in Hufflepuff now had brightly colored hair after Rolf enchanted the shampoo. Most of the Hufflepuffs didn’t seem to mind though, especially since it washed out after about a week. 

Luna had added teal streaks to her hair to match Rolf’s, though Rolf also dyed the tips of his teal hair orange.

One day when they were hanging out studying in the Room of Requirement when Draco came running into the room.

“Guys!” he said out of breath, “You won’t believe what I just saw! I was in the Slytherin dorms and I saw the giant squid! I think it waved at me!”

“Giant squid!” yelled Rolf, “I want to see the giant squid, no I want to meet it!”

“That may be hard since you can’t breath underwater,” pointed out Ginny.

“Actually,” said Neville, “I’ve read about this plant, it’s called gillyweed. If you eat it it causes you to grow gills.” 

“I want it!” yelled Rolf jumping up, “Let’s go to the lake!”

“Well, I don’t actually have any gillyweed on me,” said Neville, causing Rolf to visibly deflate in disappointment. 

“I know where we can get some,” said Draco with a grin.

“Professor Snape’s office!” exclaimed Hermione, “He’s bound to have some.”

“Wow,” said Draco, “we’ve really corrupted you, haven’t we? I can’t believe that you would suggest stealing from a professor. I was going to say we could order it.” 

“Oh,” said Hermione blushing slightly.

“No,” said Rolf, “I like the idea of stealing from Snape. Let’s go now!”

“Fine,” said Draco with a sigh, “I’ll distract him.”

They went to Snape’s office were Draco went in to talk to him. The others quickly unlocked his storage room and snuck in searching through the containers to find gillyweed. After they found it, Rolf insisted on enchanting the room to look like a cave with bats hanging from the ceiling to add to Snape’s nickname the dungeon bat. 

They snuck back out of the storage room and waited for Draco to join them.

“Let’s do this!” cried Rolf holding up a handful of gillyweed.

“Wait, now?” said Hermione, “We need to study!”

“No we don’t,” said Draco, “we’ll all do fine, and you need a break.”

Hermione agreed reluctantly. 

“I’m sure you can find some aquatic plants to study,” Ginny reassured her which made her perk up some. It also got Neville’s interest. 

They all split off to change out of their school clothes and into older clothes. Harry changed into an old pair of clothes that used to belong to his cousin Dudley. Harry wondered briefly about how his relatives were doing. He had sent them a letter after Sirius became his official guardian but he hadn’t heard anything from them. He guessed that they were as happy as he was to have him gone. 

They met down by the edge of the lake and Neville divided up enough gillyweed for them to stay underwater for an hour. Before they went in the water they cast warming spells on themselves. It was turning out to be a rather warm spring day, but the lake would be freezing. 

They waded into the water slipping on slimy stones. Harry put the gillyweed in his mouth and began chewing it. It was unpleasant, slimy and rubbery, like chewing octopus tentacles. He chewed it as much as he could before managing to swallow it without gagging. 

For a moment nothing seemed to happen, but then suddenly Harry felt as though he wore being suffocated. He tried to breath in, but nothing seemed to happen. A piercing pain started on his neck and he winced. He reached up to his neck and his fingers brushed against strange ridges and flaps. He had gills! He did the only thing that made sense, dove forward into the water. 

He gulped in the icy water and it felt just like fresh air. He could feel the water moving over his gills providing him with oxygen. He stretched out his hands in front of him and examined them. They looked green and almost ghostly under the water and they were webbed. He looked at his legs and saw that his feet had elongated and his toes had become webbed too, as though he had flippers. 

He looked over at his friends and saw that they were also examining their newly webbed appendages. 

Rolf tried to talk but only a stream of bubbles came out of his mouth. 

“Let’s look for the squid,” he tried mouthing and they took off. 

Harry felt pleasantly light and marveled at how fast and easily he could cut through the water. He also noticed that he could see clearly and no longer needed to blink. They swam out into the lake until they could no longer see the bottom. They flipped over and dived down into lake’s depths. 

The silence pressed around them as they swam over a strange and dark landscape. It got darker as they continued to swim down and soon Harry could only see ten feet in front of him. He could just make out tall, tangled dark weeds that were so thick it looked like a forest. The weeds were broken up by large stretches of mud littered with dull, glimmering stones. They swam deeper and deeper, heading towards the middle of the lake. 

Silvery fish darted around them and a few times they thought they saw something larger moving in front of them and they shot towards it, but each time it turned out to be nothing but a log or a dense clump of weeds. 

They were swimming over a batch of light green weeds when something grabbed Harry’s ankle. He twisted his body to look and saw a grindylow, a small, horned water demon poking out of the weed, its long fingers gripping Harry’s ankle, its fangs bared at him. Harry kicked his leg, but it wouldn’t let go. He reached for his wand, but the grindylow was blasted off him by a stream of boiling water, causing angry red patches to appear on the grindylows sickly green skin where it was struck.

Harry glanced up and saw Draco with his wand out and nodded his thanks, but suddenly another grindylow grabbed him and then another. Harry pointed his wand at the one on his arm and blasted it off. He blasted two more off him, but they kept coming. Harry looked over at his friends as he continued to blast them off and saw that they were doing the same. 

Suddenly the grindylows started fleeing away, diving back into the weeds and Harry looked up to see creatures that looked like half-human, half-fish hybrids swimming towards them. Harry realized they were merpeople, though they didn’t look like the mermaids and mermen he had come to expect having grown up in the muggle world. They had greyish skin and long, wild, dark green hair. Their eyes were yellow and so were their broken teeth. Around their necks were necklaces with pebbles and many of them held tridents. 

Harry realized that the grindylows were fleeing from them and they batted a few braver ones away with their tridents. They swam around Harry and his friends, watching them curiously and making strange croaking noises. 

One approached Harry and took his hand, examining his webbed fingers. The merperson made the strange croaking noise again and gave him a smile that looked eerie with the sharp teeth. Harry realized after a moment that the merpeople were laughing at them. 

Rolf seemed really excited and was trying to speak, bubbles streaming out of his mouth. But the merpeople seemed to understand him and suddenly arms wrapped around Harry’s shoulders and he struggled for a moment until one of the merpeople, a mermaid, leaned over and smiled at him.

“Relax,” she said in croaky voice. Then the merpeople were leading them through the lake. Soon Harry began making out what looked like stone buildings, like a mer-version of a village. He could make out homes with weeds growing in front of them like a garden and he even saw a grindylow tied to a stake like a pet.

He began to make out voices and he could hear beautiful singing coming from what looked like some sort of townsquare with a statue of a giant merperson hewn from a boulder. Merpeople were swimming among the buildings and many paused to look at them.

One of the merpeople pointed into the distance and Harry could make out a large dark shape moving in the distance that he realized after a second was the giant squid. 

They swam through the village with the merpeople until Harry felt someone tug on his sleeve. He turned to see Hermione pointing to her watch; their hour was almost up. 

The two of them quickly got the attention of the others and indicated that it was time to go. Rolf started pointing up and the merpeople nodded and a group surrounded them as they swam towards the surface. 

As they swam the merpeople burst into song, their voices mingling together to form a beautiful but haunting melody. Harry felt his limbs growing heavier and he was slowing down, his hands and feet were slowly losing their webbing and he could feel his gills disappearing and he began to feel slightly lightheaded. He began sinking as he struggled to continue to propel himself up, but then he felt arms around him as the merpeople propelled him to the surface. 

His head burst through the surface and he gulped in air and he could see his friends doing the same around him. A second later the merpeople burst through the water, still singing, but their song turned into a hideous screech that made Harry wince and flinch away which seemed to amuse the merpeople who stopped singing thankfully. 

They began swimming to shore, the merpeople circling around them under the water. The merpeople stopped following them once they were able to touch the bottom and they began walking to shore. Harry turned back and waved. A second later a few webbed hands appeared above the water and waved back before disappearing. 

“We were lucky they were friendly,” said Ron once they were back on the shore.

“They’re used to the students,” said Rolf, “you know how the boats we rode in our first year seemed to propel themselves? According to my grandfather it’s the merpeople pushing the boats.” 

“I managed to grab a few plants to look at,” said Neville looking through the small bag he had brought with him. 

“What are doing?” said Snape.

They whirled around to see him staring at them with narrowed eyes.

“Just enjoying the nice weather,” said Draco, “then Rolf thought he saw something in the lake so we had to drag him out, and of course that lead to a water fight.”

He gave his godfather an innocent grin. Snape’s lips pressed together into a thin line.

“I think it would be best that you dried off and spent the rest of the day inside. You do have finals coming up that you should be studying for,” he turned on his heel and stormed away, his robes billowing out behind him. 

“See,” said Hermione, “I told you it’s not too early to start studying,” which caused the others to groan in unison. 

“No,” said Rolf, “Easter break starts tomorrow and I refuse to do anything over the break except to plan what to do with my prank supplies. You’re going to relax as well.”

“But-” started Hermione.

“You’ll do fine,” said Luna putting a hand on her shoulder and giving her a serene smile as they began walking back to the castle. 

They dried themselves off with a quick spell before entering the castle, not wanting Filch to yell at them for tracking in water. 

“Harry!” called Colin Creevey running towards him clutching a note. 

“Hello, Colin,” said Harry with an amused smile.

“The headmaster wants to see you,” said Colin handing him the note. Harry scanned it and saw that it was a note asking him to go to Dumbledore’s office, though it was written in such a way to make it feel more like he was being invited, though Harry knew he had no choice but to go. 

“Thanks,” he told Colin who nodded eagerly and ran off.

“How does that kid have so much energy?” commented Draco.

“Why do you think the headmaster wants to see you?” asked Hermione.

Harry shrugged.

“Who knows? Maybe I can get some information about horcruxes. Do you have any ideas Luna?”

“He wants to know what you know,” said Luna, “Give him enough information to get some in exchange.”

Harry nodded, “I better go talk to him.” 

He left his friends and went to the statue of the gargoyle that lead to the headmaster's office and glanced down at the note.

“Blood pops,” he said and the statue moved to reveal a staircase. Harry walked up and knocked on the office door.

“Come in Harry,” called Dumbledore. Harry entered the office looking around. He had been in Dumbledore's office his first year when he had gone to tell him about Professor Quirrell. The office was filled with spindly tables that held lots of delicate looking silver instruments that whirred and emitted puffs of colored smoke. Books were piled everywhere and lined the many shelves around the room. 

Dumbledore’s phoenix, Fawkes, sat on a perch watching Harry. 

“Take a seat Harry,” said Dumbledore from behind his desk. Harry sat in the indicated seat. “Lemon drop?”

Harry took one of the offered candies. 

“How has your school year been going Harry?” asked Dumbledore giving him a grandfatherly smile.

“Not bad,” said Harry, “though I could go without Professor Trelawney predicticing my death every Divination class.” 

“I hope you are not taking her words to heart,” said Dumbledore.

“No,” replied Harry, “I have a friend who pointed out to me that everyone dies eventually.” 

“Very true and wise,” said Dumbledore with a nod.

“I find that often everything Luna says is true and wise,” said Harry.

Fawkes made a noise from over on his perch. Harry looked at the bird then at Dumbledore. When Dumbledore nodded he got up and went over to Fawkes and stroked the phoenix’s feathers. 

“You’ve been very busy since you’ve arrived at Hogwarts,” said Dumbledore sounding slightly amused. Harry looked at Dumbledore wondering just how much he knew. 

“I guess so,” he said cautiously.

“You can talk to me Harry,” said Dumbledore, giving him another grandfatherly smile.

“Professor,” he started, walking back over to the desk, “I was wondering, what can you tell me about Tom Riddle?”

Dumbledore raised an eyebrow, “You want to know about Tom Riddle, not Voldemort?”

“Tom Riddle came first,” said Harry, “and besides, Voldemort is just a name used to invoke fear. The Dark Lord Riddle doesn’t exactly have the same ring to it.”

“No it doesn’t,” said Dumbledore with a small smile, “Tom Riddle was a student here at Hogwarts. He grew up an orphan.”

“He’s descended from the Gaunt line right? But his mom was disowned.”

“Yes,” Dumbledore said nodding, “Merope Gaunt fell in love with a muggle man, Tom Riddle Sr. The Gaunts were an ancient and pureblood family with no regard for muggles. She was disowned just like you said.

“Tom was a brilliant student from the beginning, a prefect later on. He was very ambitious and was able to fool almost everyone around him. He began gathering other students around him. They became his inner circle of Death Eaters once he left school.”

“Did he make his first horcrux when he was in school?” asked Harry.

Dumbledore was silent for a moment as though contemplating what tell him.

“Yes,” he said eventually, “he created his first horcrux after opening the chamber of secrets.”

“How do you destroy a horcrux?” asked Harry. 

“Destroying a horcrux requires that the object that is containing the piece of soul be destroyed beyond repair by all physical and magical repair,” said Dumbledore, “which leads to the person heavily enchanting the objects to make them as indestructible as possible.”

Harry nodded, even though he was thinking that it wasn’t very helpful information. 

“Is there anything else you wish to tell me?” Dumbledore asked him.

“I don’t think so professor,”said Harry.

Dumbledore nodded and Harry left to go join his friends.

“How did it go?” asked Ginny.

“Alright,” said Harry. He told them about his meeting with Dumbledore, “so I still don’t know how we’re going to destroy the horcruxes.” 

“We need to use something really powerful,” said Hermione, “I’ll have to read some more books. I’m sure I can find something in the Potter or Malfoy library.”

“But not until after break!” said Rolf.

“I think the answer will reveal itself soon,” said Luna with a smile.   


	14. Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fourteen

It was turning out to be a beautiful spring break. The weather was warming considerably and the sun was shining. Their teachers had loaded them with assignments to do over the break, but thanks to Hermione’s insistence the group had managed to get all their work done so that they were able to spend most of the break relaxing, though it was quickly coming to an end. 

They were out by the lake relaxing, while most of their classmates were beginning to feel the panic of encroaching finals. Even Fred and George were studying in preparation of their OWLs. 

Luna was painting a picture of what appeared to be a forest filled with strange animals Harry had never seen and he wasn’t entirely sure if they actually existed. She was using paints that she had made from Neville’s plants with his permission.

Rolf was sitting next to her looking through his prank supplies making plans for after the break.

Hermione was leaning against a large rock reading a book with Crookshanks on her lap. Neville sat on the rock behind her sketching pictures of plants in a notebook. 

Ginny, Ron, and Draco were on broomsticks tossing around a quaffle. 

Harry was laying on his back watching Jormy fly over head. He sat up reached over to grab a chocolate frog from the pile of sweets they had brought out with them. He glanced down at the card as he ate the chocolate. Why did he always seem to get Dumbledore? 

Suddenly he was knocked to the ground as he was enveloped in a hug. 

“Sirius!” he cried in surprise at seeing his godfather, “What are you doing here?”

“What I can’t just visit?” asked Sirius grinning widely, squeezing Harry so hard he was almost struggling to breathe. 

The others walked over to greet Sirius.

“How did you get here?” asked Harry, “I didn’t think people could just show up on the school grounds.”

“They can’t,” said Sirius, “I’m technically here to meet with Dumbledore, so he opened the floo network for me. It sounds like he’s thinking about reinstating the Order of the Phoenix. I think you finding those horcruxes has made him think about taking some action.”

He gave Harry a large grin.

“But more importantly this visit allows me to see you Prongslet.”

He ruffled Harry’s hair, making it even more messier if that was possible. Harry laughed.

“Are you sure you’re not just excited to see Remus again?” he asked grinning.

Sirius blinked in surprise before his eyes narrowed slightly, staring at Harry who just grinned back at him.

“Have you seen my mother recently?” asked Draco, causing Sirius to look away from Harry.

“Yeah,” he said with a nod, “Cissy comes around for tea often. She’s also been spending time with your mum,” he said looking at Ron and Ginny. 

“Sirius!” called Remus, “Time to go!”

“Coming mum!” Sirius called back and Harry could practically see Remus rolling his eyes.

Sirius gave Harry another rib cracking hug and a wet kiss on the cheek that had Harry wrinkling his nose and Sirius grinning. The group waved and called goodbye as Sirius jogged over to Remus. 

“I wonder when they’ll actually just tell me that they’re together,” commented Harry, “I mean, they’re not very subtle, especially Sirius. It’s amazing they managed to get away with anything when they were at Hogwarts.” 

“Yeah,” agreed Ginny, “even Ron could see it and he’s really thick.”

“Hey!” exclaimed Ron, glaring at his sister. Hermione chuckled causing Ron to glare at her as well. 

As the break neared its end Harry found himself searching through the restriction area with Remus’ permission in search of anything on horcruxes or something powerful enough to destroy them. He was on his way back to the Room of Requirement with a pile of books when he saw his friends in the hall. 

Hermione appeared to be yelling at Ron and Rolf who were wearing suits of armour and holding broomsticks. Ginny stood next to her looking as though she was trying not to laugh. 

Harry walked up to Draco who was leaning against the wall.

“What are they doing?” he asked watching as Ron and Rolf ignored Hermione and mounted their brooms with some difficulty.

“Something stupid,” replied Draco. 

Rolf and Ron moved to opposite ends of the hallway and drew their wooden practice swords.

“Wait, are they jousting?” said Harry just as they charged at each other.

“Charge!” they both yelled then collided with an enormous clang. They were both sent flying off their brooms and struggled to get up in the armour.

Harry laughed hysterically at the sight, “I want to try!”

“Really?” said Draco, raising an eyebrow.

“Yes! Come on Draco!” Harry grabbed Draco’s arm and dragged him over to the suits of armour and began working on putting the armour on. After a moment Draco began doing the same grumbling the entire time.

“See what I do for you Potter?” 

“Are you scared Draco?” asked Harry in a singsong voice as he summoned his broomstick with a flick of his wand.

“You wish,” said Draco doing the same. 

The armour was incredibly heavy so Harry quickly mumbled a wandless feather-light charm on it. 

They lined up across from each other and Harry yelled charge as his friends cheered. Even Hermione had stopped yelling and was looking slightly amused. 

They charged at each other and collided with another bang and they were sent flying from their brooms. Harry lay on the ground laughing until he heard the sound of someone clearing their throat.

He looked over to see Professor McGonagall glaring at them. 

“Professor,” said Hermione, then paused as though unsure what to say, “We’re really sorry-”

“That’s enough Miss Granger,” interrupted McGonagall, “I don’t know what in Merlin’s name you think you’re doing.”

“Jousting professor,” said Rolf, “We were practicing jousting, for muggle studies!”

Professor McGonagall clearly didn’t find this amusing, which was how they ended up spending their last day of break in detention. 

“Of all the things to get in trouble for,” muttered Draco as he walked with Harry to the dungeons. The two of them would be serving their detention with Snape. 

“You’ll be cleaning cauldrons and organizing the supplies. No magic,” Snape told them before leaving and slamming the door behind him.

“I’ll start cleaning the cauldrons if you organize the supplies,” Harry told Draco who nodded. Harry knew that Draco was better at recognizing the potion ingredients than him. 

Harry began scrubbing the cauldrons which were rather disgusting, but he didn’t mind doing physical labor like cleaning by hand, unlike most wizards. He figured he was just used to doing it from his time with the Dursleys. 

Draco began going through the cabinets, taking everything out, doing inventory then putting it all back in an orderly fashion.

They worked in silence for a while before Harry looked up at Draco.

“Draco,” he called getting the blond’s attention, “I’ve been meaning to ask you for a while now, about your boggart…”

Harry trailed off as Draco frowned slightly.

“Who was it?” he asked eventually.

“You mean, was it me or my father under the mask?”

Harry nodded and Draco put down the jar he was holding. 

“I honestly don’t know,” he admitted after a little while. He walked over to sit on the table next to Harry who stopped scrubbing the cauldron, “I didn’t want to know. But I guess now that I know that my father has gone back to being a Death Eater, it would be worse if I followed him.” 

“You won’t become a Death Eater Draco,” said Harry with certainty.

Draco shrugged, but Harry thought he saw him smile slightly before he went back to organizing the ingredients. After a moment Harry began scrubbing the cauldrons again. The two worked fast and efficiently and soon were done with their tasks. Since Snape wasn’t there to give them any other tasks they left. Harry checked their map and saw that his friends were still in their own detentions. 

“What do you want to do?” he asked Draco who shrugged. They ended up going down to the forbidden forest where they raced through the trees together, each in their animagus forms. It was a beautiful clear night, without a cloud in sight. The sky was filled with stars. The moon was bright though it wasn’t a full moon yet.

Harry raced through the trees in his fox form. He loved how fast he could go, easily running over the forest floor, jumping over tree roots. His vision was perfect, even in the dark. His senses alive in a way that they never could be as a human. He could hear the wind blowing through the leaves and feel it ruffling his fur. He could hear and smell other animals moving about.

In the distance he hear wolves howling. According to Rolf the wolves in the forest weren’t normal wolves, but the offspring of two werewolves who mated in their wolf forms. This resulted in wolf cubs being born. These wolves were said to be beautiful and had near human intelligence. Rolf’s father had gotten permission from Dumbledore to let the wolves live in the forest. 

Harry ran into a small clearing with a pond. He went up to the pond to get a drink, but discovered that it was surprisingly difficult to drink in his fox form. Next to him Draco also appeared to be struggling somewhat in his leopard form.

Harry caught sight of movement in the water and without thinking he dove after it, his jaws snapping through the water as he tried to get the fish. He missed and ended up almost falling into the water going after it, his front paws were already in the water before he stopped, the realization of just what he was doing hitting him. 

Harry heard laughter and looked up to see Draco in his human form, doubled over, laughing at him.

“Did you seriously try to catch a fish?” Draco said as he laughed.

Harry glared at him, turning back into his human form. When Draco just continued to laugh he waved his arm and sent a large wave of water at him. Draco yelped as the cold water hit him. 

Now it was Harry’s turn to laugh, at least until Draco pushed him into the pond. Harry’s body jolted at the cold and he jumped up. He grabbed Draco around the waist and yanked him into the water with him. They began splashing themselves with water and tackling each other, laughing. Draco managed to get Harry into a headlock and dunked his head under the water.

Suddenly Harry froze and he stopped laughing. Draco immediately let go of him looking at him in concern.

“Harry,” he started, but Harry held a finger up to his lips.

“Did you hear something?” he whispered.

Both boys went silent as they listened to the sounds of the forest.

“I don’t hear anything,” Draco said after a little while.

They both climbed out of the water and dried themselves off and cast a warming charm on themselves. 

Harry pulled out a small silver whistle from a chain around his neck. It was technically a muggle dog whistle, but Harry had discovered that Jormy could hear it. He blew on the whistle and a few minutes later Jormy appeared flying through the trees.

“Give us a ride?” Harry asked him and Jormy grew large enough for both boys to climb on his back. Harry had fitted Jormy with a small leather saddle made out of dragonhide that he had enchanted to grow and shrink with Jormy. It was big enough for one person and had a harness attached to it so Harry wouldn’t have to worry about falling off or holding onto Jormy.

Harry climbed into the saddle and buckled himself in. Draco got on behind him and wrapped his arms around Harry’s waist, holding on tight as Jormy took off. 

They flew over the forest towards the castle. The lake was smooth and it was reflecting the night sky perfectly. Harry patted Jormy’s head and the occamy dove down towards the water so that they were just skimming above it. Harry watched the dark water fly past them, the reflections of the stars glittering up at him. 

Jormy dove upwards as they neared the shore and went into a roll, forcing Draco to grip Harry tighter. Harry let out a whoop of joy as Jormy continued to fly upwards. He loved flying! 

Jormy seemed to catch onto Harry’s enjoyment and dove down, seeming to go into a freefall for a moment. Harry felt himself rise out of the saddle for a moment, his heart seemed to stop and his stomach dropped, then they were going down at incredible speed, dropping out of the air. The air whipped through Harry’s hair and his eyes watered as they continued to fall until Jormy snapped out his wings, stopping their descent just above the ground.

Draco was gripping Harry so hard that he would probably have bruises. Harry roared with laughter at the feeling of flying and freedom.

“You’re insane,” Draco yelled over the sound of the air rushing past them, “you know that, right?”

Harry turned in the saddle, twisting around in Draco’s arms to look at the other boy, knowing that he was grinning like a madman.

“Would you want it any other way?” he asked, causing Draco to roll his eyes, but he was smiling fondly.

Without thinking Harry leaned back and kissed Draco on the cheek causing the blond to freeze. Harry drew back, eyes wide.

“Sorry,” he said “I don’t know why I did that.”

Draco was silent for a moment as he just stared at Harry, then he leaned forward and pressed his lips against Harry’s. 

The kiss was short and chaste as they were interrupted by Jormy landing on the astronomy tower balcony. 

Draco got off Jormy as Harry undid the saddle harness and climbed down. Jormy shrunk and wrapped himself around Harry’s arm under his sleeve.

Harry turned to Draco, but they were interrupted by the sound of multiple people running towards them.

“There you are!” cried Hermione running onto the balcony clutching her copy of the map, the others behind her, “We have an emergency!”

Draco groaned, “We were gone an hour and you were in detention, what could have possibly gone wrong?”

“Quite a bit actually,” replied Luna, looking the most calm out of the group. 

“I might  have made a mistake,” said Rolf.

“Might?!” cried Ron, “There’s no doubt about it; you made a huge mistake!”

“What happened?” demanded Harry, cutting off the argument before he could really begin.

“I may have left my bag unoccupied for a little while,” said Rolf, “and a few things, may have gotten out.”

“Merlin,” groaned Draco, “doesn’t your family ever learn?”

“No!” cried Rolf, “That’s the problem, we don’t!”

“We have to find all the creatures that got out,” said Ginny.

Harry nodded as Draco groaned, this is going to be a long night he thought.  


	15. Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Fifteen

“I can’t believe this happened,” said Rolf.

“Really?” said Draco sarcastically, “It happened to both your father and your grandfather, it was just bound to happen to you. I mean really, we probably should have expected this to happen.” 

“What got out?” Harry asked Rolf as they made their way towards the trophy room where Rolf had had his detention.

“Just a few creatures,” he replied, “a mooncalf, a kneazle, a demiguise, a thunderbird, a fwooper, and Fluffy.”

“Fluffy?” said Ron in surprise, “You were carrying Fluffy around in your bag?”

“Yes,” said Rolf, “Fluffy wasn’t needed to guard the stone anymore and Hagrid couldn't keep him, so I offered to take him. I kept him with me so Hagrid could visit him.”

“He probably went to see Hagrid!” said Ginny, “I’ll go look for him at Hagrid’s hut.”

“I’ll go with you,” said Neville and the two took off. 

“What does a mooncalf look like?” asked Harry.

“Oh they’re really adorable,” said Rolf and Luna nodded in agreement, “they’re grey with little limbs, large flat feet and big eyes on top of their head. When it’s a full moon they do this little complicated dance.”

“So it comes out during a full moon?” asked Hermione and Rolf nodded, “Then we can lure out.”

“How?” Draco asked, “It’s not a full moon.” 

“But it doesn’t know that,” said Hermione and with a wave of her wand she conjured up a glowing orb that looked like a full moon. “It’s just a simple illusion, but it should do the trick.” 

Hermione sent the orb up to hover near the ceiling and Rolf set up a ward under it that would trap the mooncalf when it entered it.

Their wristwatches beeped and Harry and Ron went outside to find Neville and Ginny with Hagrid holding Fluffy on a thick leash. 

“You found him!” Rolf yelled running down to them. 

“Yep,” said Hagrid, “heard barking outside me window and I looked out and saw him standing there. Have a bit of a problem on your hands, don’t ya?” 

“No, no. No problem,” said Rolf opening his bag, “Everything is under control.” 

He handed his bag to Luna who held it open as he climbed inside and disappeared. A second later he stuck his upper body out of the bag and held up a large raw steak. He waved it around and Fluffy lunged forward. Rolf ducked back down into the bag and Fluffy jumped in after him, Hagrid letting go of the leash. Harry was impressed that Luna managed to not even flinch as the giant three headed dog went running at her.

Rolf climbed out of the bag and took it from Luna.

“Thanks Hagrid,” said Rolf and they all ran back into the castle.

They went to the trophy room where Hermione and Draco were standing against the wall, poking their heads around the corner.

“We found the mooncalf,” said Hermione, “it fell for the trap.”

Harry looked around the corner and saw a little creature that looked just like Rolf described. It’s large bulging eyes were focused on the glowing orb and it was walking on his back legs in what appeared to be some sort of intricate path, kicking and shuffling its feet. It really was rather adorable.

Rolf stepped around the corner and walked up to the mooncalf, breaking the circle. He put his own bag on the ground in front of the dancing mooncalf.

“Come on Badar!” he called as the little creature danced his way right into the bag, too enchanted by the fake moon to notice where he was going until it was too late. 

“What’s next?” asked Harry.

“Well Galvan shouldn’t be too hard to find,” answered Rolf.

“And what exactly is Galvan?” asked Draco sounding slightly nervous.

“He’s the thunderbird,” said Rolf, “He’d try to-”

Rolf was cut off when what looked like a lime green bird swooped down in front of his face.

“Mia!” cried Rolf making a grab for the bird, which Harry realized was the fwooper. Mia easily evaded Rolf, who lunged for her and landed on his face. She swooped down again, this time in front of Neville and Ron who both jumped after her and ended up slamming into each other.

The fwooper flew in front of Harry and he made a swipe for it, but he was too slow and accidently hit Draco in the face.

“Sorry!” cried Harry.

“That bird is kicking our asses and it hasn’t even touched us,” groaned Draco. 

Jormy stuck his head out of Harry’s shirt by his collar to see what the communion was about. When he saw Mia he made a squeak and jumped after the bird, growing larger.

“Jormy, no!” yelled Harry, but Jormy seemed transfixed by the colorful bird and continued to chase after her. 

Mia turned and took off down the hall, Jormy on her tail.

“After them!” yelled Rolf and they all took off after the two flying creatures. They were just rounding a corner when Peeves came floating out of a classroom. They skidded to a halt as Peeves stared at them in surprise before a wicked looking grin appeared on his face. 

“It’s the Bloody Baron!” yelled Draco pointing behind Peeves who turned to check with a look of fear on his face. When he saw that the Bloody Baron was not there he turned back to glare at them.

“He was there, I swear!” said Draco. 

“Students out of bed!” hollered Peeves at the top of his lungs.

“Not again!” cried Neville as they took off.

“Spilt up!” yelled Hermione, “Use the maps and look for the creatures!”

Luna, Rolf, and Neville ran in one direction while Ginny, Hermione, and Ron ran in the other direction. Draco and Harry continued running straight and without a word they both turned into their animagus forms and took off. 

They took corners at random until Harry heard a crash coming from a classroom and he came skidding to a halt, his paws sliding on the smooth stone. Draco barely managed to not crash into Harry as he changed directions to head to the classroom where he could hear another crash. 

They ran into the classroom and entered what looked like a disaster zone. Desks were knocked over, books scattered around the classroom, papers flying everywhere. And zooming around the room was Mia, with Jormy after her, snapping at her tail. Every time Jormy got close to Mia she would change direction, doubling back causing Jormy’s body to twist around himself in his haste to get her.

“Jormy!” yelled Harry, “Stop it right now!”

Jormy paused and looked at Harry, but then Mia swooped down in front of him, as though mocking the occamy and Jormy couldn’t resist taking the bait. 

“Shit,” hissed Harry pulling out his wand, but he didn’t know what to do. He didn’t want to hurt Jormy or Mia. 

Draco suddenly ran forward and grabbed a vase that had been knocked over and dumped the flowers out. He held up the vase.

“Hey Jormy!” he yelled getting the occamy’s attention. Jormy let out a noise of joy and dove for the vase, shrinking at the last minute so he could fit inside it.

Harry quickly closed the classroom door before Mia could escape while Draco flipped the vase over, trapping Jormy inside it. 

“What do we do with her?” asked Draco watching Mia fly around the classroom. 

“I’ve got an idea,” said Harry digging through his bag and pulling out his invisibility cloak. He tossed one end to Draco who caught it and they watched Mia fly around. They stood still until she swooped low in front of them and then they threw the cloak over her, pinning it to the floor. Mia struggled against the cloak, but the two boys managed to gather the cloak up with her in. 

Draco took the struggling bundle from Harry.

“I’ve got her,” he told him, “you check the map and find Rolf.” 

Harry nodded and pulled out his map. He quickly scanned it, taking note of Flitch and Mrs. Norris’ locations.

“They’re on the floor above us,” Harry told Draco.

Harry grabbed the vase with Jormy and glared down at the little occamy who ducked his head looking ashamed. He opened his bag and dumped Jormy in it.

He quickly cast a few cleaning charms, wishing Hermione was with them since she was better at such spells, and then the two took off after placing silencing charms on themselves. They were forced to double back a few times to avoid Flitch, but eventually they made it upstairs where they were shocked to see that it was raining inside.

Clouds had gathered near the ceiling and thunder rumbled. Harry and Draco glanced at each other before running into the storm. Mia struggled harder in Draco's arms and Harry reached over to help him hold her. 

Lightning flashed across the ceiling, followed by thunder. Ahead of them Harry caught a glimpse of Rolf’s teal hair. 

“Rolf!” he yelled.

Rolf turned and saw them. He ran over and Draco and Harry held up their struggling bundle.

“Mia,” said Draco in explanation and Rolf quickly opened his bag and they dumped the bird in. 

“What’s going on here?!” yelled Draco over another rumble of thunder.

“Galvan!” yelled Rolf, “He’s scared!”

“ _ He’s _ scared!” Draco yelled back.

The three boys ran down the hall and Harry saw Neville and Luna standing in front of a large avian creature that reminded him somewhat of a griffin without the horse features. It had light tan and gold feathers and gold eyes. The thunderbird was hovering in the air, flapping its six wings. 

“Everyone back up!” called Rolf and Neville immediately stepped away from the bird as Rolf walked up. Luna stepped to the side, but stayed near him. 

“It’s okay Galvan!” said Rolf, trying to calm the thunderbird. He slowly walked closer and Galvan watched him closely, but allowed him to approach. Rolf reached forward and began stocking the thunderbird’s feathers. Harry could see Galvan begin to calm some, his wings flapping less frantically. After a moment Luna stepped up next to Rolf and joined him in stroking Galvan. The rain began to slow and the clouds slowly disappeared. 

Rolf paused to open his bag while Luna continued to calm the thunderbird. 

“Come on Galvan,” said Rolf holding the bag open. Harry breathed in relief when the thunderbird walked into the bag without causing anymore problems. 

“Why do you have that in there?” said Draco casting a spell to dry his clothes and Harry quickly did the same. 

“My grandfather has rescued quite a few thunderbirds over the years. They’re native to the desert in North America. He had some trouble bringing over the first thunderbird he rescued, Frank. He brought this one to Arizona multiple times, but each time he would just show back up at our house. So the last time he showed up, I just got him into my bag before my grandfather could see him.” 

“What else escaped?” asked Neville.

“There’s still a kneazle and a demiguise on the loose,” Rolf replied. 

“We got the kneazle!” said Hermione turning the corner with Ron and Ginny. Walking behind them was Crookshanks and a bright orange kneazle, “Crookshanks found her.” 

“In the bag Harper,” Rolf told the kneazle who jumped up into the bag, but Harry could swear that she rolled her eyes. 

“Alright,” said Rolf straightening his bag, “all that’s left is Ghost, the demiguise. He’s going to be the hardest to find. Demiguises can turn invisible and they can tell the future, which makes them really hard to catch. Also, where’s Luna?”

Harry looked around, not seeing Luna.

“Luna?” called Ginny.

“Right here,” said Luna walking up to them, “I found Ghost.”

She patted something in front of her and a creature that resembled an ape with large black eyes and long, silky white hair appeared. He was clinging to Luna, it’s long arms wrapped around her neck.

Rolf stared at Luna in shock.

“How?” he asked stunned.

Luna shrugged, “He wasn’t that hard to find.”

“You’re amazing, you know that right?” said Rolf grinning as he helped Luna get Ghost into the bag.

“I know,” said Luna and Rolf leaned over and gave her a quick kiss. 

“So that’s everything,” said Ginny and Neville sighed in relief.

“Not quite,” said a voice behind them and they turned to see a wizard glaring down at them from one of the paintings. The wizard was leaning into the painting with a witch who didn’t look happy to have him there, “You’re the one who let the creatures loose?”

“I didn’t let them loose,” said Rolf, “they just sort of, made a run for it.”

“Well, I’ll have you know that one of your  _ creatures _ , is destroying the headmaster’s office.”

“Shit!” cried Rolf and they took off running towards Dumbledore’s office.

“Blood pops,” said Harry and luckily the password hadn’t been changed yet and the gargoyle moved aside for them.

They ran up to the office which was dark and they could hear the paintings of past headmasters whispering among themselves. Harry used  _ lumos _ to light up the room and his friends did the same. Harry immediately noticed that the tables that had been filled with strange machines were now empty and he pointed it out to the others.

“Great,” muttered Rolf, “let me guess, were these objects shiny?” 

“Yeah,” said Harry and Rolf groaned.

“It’s a niffler,” he said, “they collect shiny things in their pouch. I thought both of the nifflers were still in my bag. I know for a fact that I saw Posey and I thought I saw Gerald, but I must have just counted Posey twice.” 

They spread out across the office, searching for the niffler. Suddenly Neville made a noise of surprise and Rolf ran over to him. Harry heard the noise of a struggle and he caught glimpses in the light from his wand of Rolf chasing around a rodent like creature with a long snout like a platypus and black, fluffy fur. 

Rolf managed to grab the niffler and turned him upside down and began shaking him. Harry watched as Dumbledore’s trinkets began falling out of the niffler’s pouch, falling into a giant pile. Once nothing else was coming out of Gerald’s pouch, Rolf dropped him into his bag. 

They began picking up the trinkets and placing them on the tables.

“Dumbledore is going to know something happened,” said Hermione.

“I don’t think there was ever a chance of him not finding out,” said Ron.

“Yeah,” said Harry, “I think he knows just about everything that goes on in the school.” 

They left Dumbledore’s office and went to the Room of Requirement to crash for the night. They stayed up for a little while longer reading The Return of the King, and Harry didn’t comment when Draco sat next to him on the couch and leaned against him.  


	16. Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Sixteen

The next day at breakfast Dumbledore paused next to their table on his way to the teacher’s table.

“I assume that everything is back where it should be?” he asked.

“Yes Gandalf,” said Rolf, ducking his head slightly.

“Good,” said Dumbledore, his eyes sparkling, “otherwise you would not pass.” 

He swept past them to the front of the room, his lavender robes sweeping behind him. 

They finished eating and headed up to Divination, waving goodbye to Ginny and Luna. They sat down at one of the rickety tables in the corner, propping open one of the windows to allow some fresh air into the stuffy classroom. Glowing on every table was a crystal ball full of pearly white mist. 

“I thought we weren’t starting crystal balls until next term,” said Ron, looking around the room for Professor Trelawney. 

“Don’t complain, this means we’ve finished palmistry,” said Harry, “I was getting sick of her flinching every time she looked at my hands.”

“I’m sure she’ll find another way to predict your death,” Rolf told Harry who sighed, because he knew he was right. Draco gave him a look that was half sympathetic, half amused. 

   “Good day to you!” said the familiar, misty voice of Professor Trelawney as she made her usual entrance, emerging from the room’s shadows. Parvati and Lavender were quivering in excitement at the next table over, their faces lit up by the crystal ball.

“I have decided to introduce the crystal ball a little earlier than I had planned,” said Professor Trelawney, sitting with her back to the fire and gazing around at the class.

“I thought she was supposed to know everything about the future,” Draco muttered from where he sat next to Harry. 

“The fates have informed me that your examinations in June will concern the Orb, and I am anxious to give you sufficient practice.”

Hermione and Draco both snorted.

“Honestly,” said Hermione, barely trying to keep her voice down, “the fates have informed her? She makes the exams! What an amazing prediction!” The others struggled not to laugh, though Rolf was failing.

If Professor Trelawney had heard them, she made no indication and continued on as though she had not. 

“Crystal gazing is a particularly refined art,” she said in a dreamy voice. “I do not expect any of you to See when you first peer into the Orb’s infinite depths. We shall start by practicing relaxing the conscious mind and external eyes”-Ron and Rolf began sniggering uncontrollably and Ron was forced to stuff his fist in his mouth to stifle the noise- “so as to clear the Inner Eye and the superconscious. Perhaps, if we are lucky, some of you will See before the end of the class.”

“I wish Luna was here,” said Rolf, “I bet she could show Trelawney a thing or two.”

Harry grinned at this as he turned to face the crystal ball. He felt extremely foolish, staring blankly at it, trying to keep his mind empty, but he kept thinking things like ‘this is stupid.’ It didn’t help when Rolf began waving his hands over the crystal ball as though he could force it to reveal images and Ron kept breaking into silent giggles while Hermione kept tutting.

“Seen anything yet?” Harry asked them after close to twenty minutes of crystal gazing.

Rolf’s reply was to snore softly from where he had fallen asleep, his head on the table. Next to him Neville kept jerking up as though he wore struggling to stay awake. 

“There’s a burn on this side of the table,” said Ron, “Someone’s spilled their candle.” 

“I see an occamy,” said Draco, “but it’s just Jormy.”

Harry glanced back at the crystal ball to see that Jormy had climbed out of his bag and was staring into the orb, tapping his beak against it. 

“This is such a waste of time,” Hermione hissed in annoyance, “I could be practicing something useful or studying. If I want to know the future, I’ll just ask Luna.” 

“Would anyone like me to help them interpret the shadowy portents within their Orb?” Trelawney murmured approaching their table, her bangles clinking on her wrists. 

Neville elbowed Rolf who jerked up in alarm before wiping the drool of her face. 

“I don’t need help,” Ron whispered. “It’s obvious what this means. There’s going to be loads of fog tonight.” 

They all burst out laughing. 

“Now, really!” said Professor Trelawney as everyone in the class turned to look in their direction. Parvati and Lavender were looking scandalized. “You are disturbing the clairvoyant vibrations!”

“I’m ready to make a prediction!” called Rolf cutting off whatever else Trelawney was going to say. 

He leaned over the table looking into the crystal ball with a look of concentration on his face. Professor Trelawney leaned forward eagerly.

“I see, something,” said Rolf, “emerging from the mist. I see myself. I’m in the Great Hall, and I’m eating chocolate pudding!”

There was a moment of silence before Rolf looked up at Professor Trelawney.

“That’s all I see,” he informed her. 

Professor Trelawney didn’t seem to know what to say, so she just leaned over to look into their crystal ball and Harry wanted to groan, knowing what was coming next.

“Here it comes,” snickered Draco next to him and Harry gave him a small shove.

“There is something here!” Professor Trelawney whispered, lowering her face to the ball so that it was reflected in her glasses. “Something moving...but what is it?”

Harry sighed, waiting to here about his upcoming doom.

“My dear…,” Professor Trelawney breathed, gazing at Harry, tears in her eyes. “It is here, plainer than ever before...my dear, stalking toward you, growing ever closer...the Gr-”

“Oh for  _ goodness’ _ sake!” cried Hermione loudly, “Not that ridiculous Grim  _ again _ !”

“Are you sure you’re not seeing my godfather?” Harry asked Trelawney innocently, “His animagus form is a black dog, and I will be seeing him soon over summer break.” 

But Professor Trelawney ignored Harry, raising her enormous eyes to look at Hermione. Parvati and Lavender were whispering and they both glared at Hermione. Professor Trelawney stood up, surveying Hermione with unmistakable anger.

“I am sorry to say that from the moment you have arrived in this class, my  _ dear _ , it has been apparent that you do not have what the noble art of Divination requires. Indeed, I don’t remember ever meeting a student whose mind was so hopelessly mundane.”

There was a moment of silence. Then-

“Mundane!” yelled Ron, “There’s nothing mundane about Hermione, especially not her mind! She’s bloody brilliant!” 

Hermione blushed at Ron’s words, then suddenly the room started filling with green smoke and everyone was forced to run out of the tower, covered in green dust.

“What was that!” asked Neville.

“Just a little something I got from Zonko’s,” said Rolf with a grin, “I made your prediction come true Ron!” 

 Draco just shook his head as he tried to get the green dust out of his hair. Harry laughed as he cleaned off his glasses. They quickly cleaned themselves off and headed to their next class. 

Later at lunch Hermione turned to Luna, “Can Trelawney actually see anything about the future do you know?”

Harry paused eating as he turned to listen. Luna seemed to think for a moment before answering.

“Yes and no,” she said, “most of what she does is smoke and mirrors, made to look impressive and to hide the fact that she sees nothing in her crystal balls or teacups. But she does occasionally get glimpses of the future, even had a few prophecies.” 

“So should we not just dismiss everything she says then?” asked Harry.

“I would look for the grains of truth among the false predictions,” said Luna, “and try to keep a somewhat open mind. She is related to Cassandra.”

“Cassandra?” asked Neville.

“Cassandra of Troy,” replied Luna, “she was a prophet during the Trojan War. She refused to sleep with the god Apollo, so he cursed her so that no one would believe her predictions and prophecies.” 

“That’s rude,” said Draco.

“Very,” agreed Luna.

 

The next few weeks were busy as everyone prepared for finals. When exam week finally arrived there was an unnatural hush over the castle. Harry emerged from his transfiguration exam on Monday along with the rest of the third years. He could hear his classmates talking about how they did on the tasks, which had included turning a teapot into a tortoise. 

“Mine still had a spout for a tail, what a nightmare…”

“Were the tortoises  _ supposed  _ to breathe steam?”

“It still had a willow-patterned shell, d’you think that’ll count against me?”

Then after a hasty lunch, it was straight back upstairs for the Charms exam where Professor Flitwick tested them on cheering charms. Then the students headed back to the common rooms to study for the next day’s exams. Except for Harry and his friends who relaxed in the Room of Requirement. They were as prepared for the tests as they could get. It also helped that Rolf had convinced Luna, against Hermione’s urgings, to give them some hints on what to practice.

The next day was Care of Magical Creatures, Potions, and Astronomy. Harry had been quite pleased at the look on Snape’s face when he finished making a perfect Confusing Concoction.

Their second to last exam on Thursday morning was Defense Against the Dark Arts. Remus had compiled a rather unusual exam that was a sort of obstacle course outside, where they had to wade across a deep paddling pool that contained a grindylow, cross a series of potholes full of Red Caps, squish their way across a patch of marsh while ignoring misleading directions from a hinkypunk, then climb into an old trunk and battle a boggart.

Harry got through with no problems.

“Nice job pup,” Remus said with a proud grin, “Full points.”   

Their last exam was Divination and they all walked up the marble staircase together. Many of their classmates were already waiting to get into the classroom, trying to cram in some last minute studying.

This was the one exam that Harry planned on winging it. He had thought about asking Luna for some information about the future to tell Trelawney, but had decided against it. Luna would reveal what she knew when the time was right. 

“She’s seeing us all separately,” Seamus told them when they sat down on the stairs near him. He had his copy of  _ Unfogging the Future _ open in his lap at the pages devoted to crystal gazing. “Have any of you ever seen  _ anything _ in a crystal ball?” he asked them unhappily.

“Nope,” said Ron.

“My prediction about the chocolate pudding came true,” said Rolf, who had gone out of his way to try and eat his weight’s worth in pudding that night.  

The line of people outside the classroom slowly shortened as Trelawney began calling students in to test them. As each person climbed back down the silver ladder, the rest of the class would hiss, “What did she ask? Was it okay?”

But they all refused to say.

Harry watched as his friends all went up to see Trelawney.

Neville went first and when he came back down he told them that Professor Trelawney told him that if he told them anything about the exam, something terrible would happen to him. 

“How convenient!” said Hermione.

“This is just ridiculous,” said Draco, “I’m going to tell my mother about her. That way she can tell my father and have him complain to the board. Whenever he gets back that is.”  

Hermione came back muttering about how it was rubbish and Draco looked rather annoyed when he came down. 

“I just made some stuff up,” said Ron, “but I don’t think she believed me.”

Rolf said he just told her about his dreams.

“Wait,” said Neville, “do actually have prophetic dreams?”

“Of course not,” said Rolf, “but she doesn’t have to know that.”

Harry went last out of the group, Jormy wriggling around on his wrist as he climbed the ladder.

The tower room was hotter than ever before; the curtains were closed, the fire alight, and the usual sickly scent made Harry cough as he stumbled though the cluttered room to sit at the table where Trelawney was waiting for him with a crystal ball.

“Good day, my dear,” she said softly. “If you would kindly gaze into the Orb...take your time now...then tell me what you see within it…”

Harry bent over the crystal ball and squinted into its foggy depths. Jormy struggled against him and he got an idea.

“I think I see something…” he said.

“Well?” prompted Trelawny, “What is it? What do you see?”

“I see a dark shape,” he began, “it looks like a serpent? Wait, no, it has wings. It’s an occamy. I see the occamy breaking a teacup.”

Trelawny stared at him as though he wore crazy.

“Well, my dear,” she said after a long pause, “that was rather disappointing-” Then from behind her came a crash as one of the teacups fell to the floor and Jormy let out a loud squeak from where he hovered in the air next to the shelf.

“Wow!” said Harry, “Look at that, it came true already!”

He got up to leave after using a quick charm to fix the broken teacup. He was just heading towards the door when a loud, harsh voice spoke behind him.

_ “It will happen tonight.” _

Harry wheeled around to see that Professor Trelawney had gone rigid in her armchair; her eyes wide and unfocused, her mouth sagging. 

“Excuse me?” said Harry.

But Professor Trelawney didn’t seem to hear him. Her eyes started to roll around in her head and Harry began to panic. Was she having some sort of seizure? He was about to run to the hospital wing when Trelawney spoke again in the same harsh voice that was so unlike her own normal voice.

_ “The Dark Lord lies alone and friendless, abandoned by his followers. His servant has been chained for these past twelve years. Tonight, before midnight...his servants will find him and rejoin their master. The Dark Lord will rise again with his servants’ aid, greater and more terrible than ever he was. Tonight...before midnight...the servants...will find...and rejoin...their master…”  _

Professor Trelawney’s head fell forward onto her chest. She made some sort of strange grunting noise. Harry could do nothing but stare at her. Then quite suddenly, Professor Trelawney’s head snapped back up.

“I’m so sorry, dear boy,” she said, speaking once again in her normal dreamy voice, “the heat of the day, you know...I drifted off for a moment…”

Harry just stared at her for a moment before saying, “Yeah, maybe you should open a window.”

He climbed down the ladder as fast as he could, Jormy flying to catch up with him. Holy shit, he thought to himself, Trelawney just told him that Bellatrix Lestrange and Lucius Malfoy were going to find Voldemort that night, and that they would succeed in bringing him back. And he had no way to stop them, he had no clue where they were, and if he were to believe Mrs. Malfoy, which he did, she didn’t know any more than he did about her husband and sister’s whereabouts. 

It also seemed like Harry now knew for sure which side Draco’s father would end up on. Trelawney had said servants, plural. It may have started for him as a way to appease the insane Bellatrix, but it sounded like once they found Voldemort, Mr. Malfoy would help him return to power.

Harry was not looking forward to telling Draco. 


	17. Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Seventeen

Harry decided that he would tell Draco about what Trelawney said first since it involved his father. He joined his friends who were celebrating the end of exams with a game of exploding snap down by the lake. 

Harry watched them finish the round, Draco emerging victorious. Rolf had had so many cards blow up in his face that Harry was convinced it was intentional.

“How’d it go Harry?” asked Ginny.

“Alright,” he said, “Draco, can I talk to you for a second?”

“Sure,” said Draco walking over. Harry saw Luna give him a knowing look. Harry led Draco a little ways from the group into the edge of the forest so that they would have some privacy. Jormy stayed with the others, watching them curiously as they started another round of exploding snap. 

Harry turned to Draco who was looking at him expectantly. Harry opened and closed his mouth a few times. He really should have thought more about what he was going to say.

“You really need to let me do something with your hair,” said Draco suddenly when Harry continued to say nothing. Draco reached forward and started running his hands through Harry’s dark hair in an attempt to tame it.

“Good luck with that,” he told him, “my aunt used to cut my hair, but by the next day it would always grow back. My dad’s hair was the same way apparently. Sirius calls it the Potter curse.”

“Have you ever tried gel?” asked Draco continuing to run his hands through it.

“Um, no, but that’s not what I wanted to talk to you about,” said Harry, though he didn’t move away from Draco’s hands.

“I figured,” said Draco with a smirk, stepping back to examine Harry’s hair, “Okay, I think I might have made it worse.” 

“Yes, well-” said Harry, running his hands through his hair as he attempted to get back on track.

“Did you want to talk about what happened that night?” asked Draco.

“That night?” said Harry, before realizing that Draco meant the kiss and he felt heat rush to his face. “No, but I have been meaning to talk to you about that.”

“Was it okay?” asked Draco, looking slightly nervous all of a sudden.

“Yes!” Harry rushed to assure him, “Of course it was, I mean, I did sort of kiss you first, and I did enjoy it.”

“Good,” said Draco, grinning again.

“Draco-” started Harry just to be cut off when Draco leaned forward and pressed his lips against Harry’s. 

His lips were warm and soft as they moved against Harry’s and he found himself kissing Draco back. He tilted his head slightly improving the angle, deepening the kiss. One of Draco’s hands tangled in Harry’s hair and they moved closer together, their bodies pressing together. Harry reached up to cup a hand against Draco’s jaw. 

Shit, this was definitely not how he expected this conversation to go. He leaned back, reluctantly breaking the kiss.

“Draco,” he said, slightly out of breath, “I need to tell you something, something important.” 

“Yes Harry?” asked Draco, not making any attempt to move away from Harry. 

“I think your father and Bellatrix are going to find Voldemort tonight and help him return.”

“What?” said Draco stepping back. 

That was not definitely not the way he wanted to tell him. Real smooth Potter. He quickly told Draco about Trelawney’s prophecy, reciting as much of it as he could from memory. 

Draco stared at the ground, his mouth open slightly before walking a few steps away and leaning against a tree.  

“Draco?” Harry asked hesitantly, “Are you alright?”

Draco seemed to take a minute to compose himself before looking up at Harry.

“Yeah,” he said, “I’m okay.”

Harry stepped forward, not sure what to do, but he pulled Draco into a hug and after a moment the blond boy hugged him back. 

“I’m sorry,” whispered Harry, not sure what else to say.

“Why are you sorry?” said Draco pulling back to look at him, “It’s not your fault. And maybe my father  _ won’t  _ help Voldemort. Just because he finds Voldemort with Bellatrix doesn’t have to mean he’ll help him. I mean, Voldemort has to have other followers out there willing to help him along with Bellatrix.”

Harry nodded, not saying anything, even though he doubted that Voldemort would allow Lucius to just walk away after finding him, even if he wanted to, and Bellatrix didn’t seem the type to let her brother-in-law dessert her lord. 

They stood together in silence before Draco spoke again.

“We should probably head back,” he said, “tell the others.”

Harry nodded and the two walked back to their friends. He could feel Luna’s eyes on him as they approached the group.

“What did she say?” she asked once Harry and Draco rejoined them. 

Everyone turned to look at Harry who told them what Trelawney said. His words were met by silence, as everyone absorbed what he said, the earlier joy fading. No one said anything to Draco.

“Well, we knew this would happen,” said Hermione eventually, “they were bound to find him.” 

Harry nodded, “Yeah, we just need to continue like we have been. Find the rest of the horcruxes and find a way to destroy them.” 

 

Later that night Harry was called to Remus’ office to talk. When Harry arrived he discovered that Remus was packing.

“I take it you wanted to tell me that you won’t be teaching next year?” asked Harry, stepping into Remus’ office. 

Remus looked up and smiled at him.

“No,” he said, “I decided it would be for the best.”  
“For the best?” said Harry confused, “What do you mean? You’re a brilliant teacher.”

“Yes, but parents don’t want a werewolf teaching their children.”

“Wait, you don’t mean- someone found out?!”

“Seems that way,” replied Remus with a small sigh, “soon everyone will know. I guess I should be grateful that it only got out at the end of the year.”

Harry stared at Remus in shock, he hadn’t heard anything about Remus being a werewolf getting out, but he had spent the afternoon with his friends and hadn’t seen any of his other classmates. 

“But that’s not fair!” argued Harry, “Who cares if you're a werewolf?”

Remus gave him a sad smile.        

“Unfortunately, a lot of people,” he said, “but it's okay pup, I don’t mind stepping down. I’m grateful Dumbledore gave me the opportunity in the first place.”

Harry frowned for a moment, searching Remus’ face, trying to figure out if he was being sincere or not. 

“I guess Sirius will be happy to have you around,” said Harry eventually, “and I’m sure you’ve missed being with him.”

Remus’ mouth opened and closed a few times, his eyes going wide.

“Wait, do you know?”

“About you and Sirius?” said Harry, “Of course, I only lived with the two of you for the past two summers. I’m not completely blind.”

Remus looked down and chuckled slightly.

“I guess I shouldn’t be that surprised that you know,” he said, “and I admit, I have missed him.”

“So you definitely don’t mind not teaching next year?” asked Harry.

“I’m sure Harry.”

“All right then,” said Harry, “I’ll help you pack.” 

 

The next day everyone boarded the Hogwarts Express back to London. They spent the trip finishing reading The Return of the King and didn’t bring up Voldemort once. They said their goodbyes on the train, though they promised that they would get together as soon as possible. 

When they got to the station Sirius was waiting with Mr. and Mrs. Weasley and Mrs. Malfoy. Sirius gave Harry a bone cracking hug and then both Mrs. Weasley and Mrs. Malfoy gave him a hug as well. 

“It was nice seeing you Sirius,” said Mrs. Malfoy, placing a hand on Draco’s shoulder, “I’m sure I’ll be seeing you soon.” 

She reached forward and hugged Sirius and Harry didn’t catch it, but it looked like she whispered something in Sirius’ ear. When she pulled back she smiled at Sirius who smiled back. Then she disappeared with Draco. Harry looked at Sirius and raised an eyebrow.

“Not here,” murmured Sirius and Harry nodded. Then Sirius, Remus, and Harry apparated to Potter Manor. 

“Well?” asked Harry raising an eyebrow at Sirius. Remus also looked curious. “What did she tell you?”

Sirius sighed, his smile gone.

“She said that they found him.”

Harry closed his eyes, not surprised at the news, but he still felt his heart drop. A part of him had hoped that Trelawney would be wrong. He opened his eyes and looked at Sirius and Remus who both looked grave.

“Then we need to be prepared to fight when he shows up,” said Harry.


End file.
